Stock futures were little changed Monday as investors waited to assess whether the next batch of key corporate earnings could power the market to more records. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2%. S&P 500 index futures rose 0.2%, while Nasdaq-100 futures gained 0.4%. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Johnson & Johnson report their latest results on Tuesday before the market opens, while Morgan Stanley and United Airlines are set to release results Wednesday. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Netflix and Procter & Gamble are also scheduled to post earnings this week. Those reports will come after JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo kicked off the third-quarter earnings season on a high note. The early signs of a recovery in banking profits helped push the broader market to all-time highs at the end of last week. The S&P 500 closed above 5,800 for the first time, while the blue-chip Dow also reached an all-time high. So far, 30 S&P 500 companies have posted results, beating the earnings consensus by about 5% on average, according to Bank of America. That’s better than the 3% beat at this time last quarter. Still, Bernstein believes that this quarter’s year-over-year earnings per share growth rate will still come in “much lower” than last quarter’s. Despite the market climbing to new heights, investors remain anxious against a backdrop of a closely-contested presidential election in three weeks, suddenly rising Treasury yields, uncertainty about the pace of Federal Reserve policy easing and escalating geopolitical risks in the Middle East. Still, “the Big 4 macro tailwinds (stimulus, resilient growth, disinflation, and healthy corporate performance) are all still in place and they’re powerful enough to overcome rich valuations and geopolitical risks, keeping the SPX on an upward trajectory,” Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge, said in a note Sunday. The S&P 500 has gained nearly 22% this year, excluding reinvested dividends. The bull market recently turned two years old, and the benchmark has rallied nearly 63% in total since hitting a closing low in October 2022. Treasury yields have risen lately too, with the benchmark 10-year note yield, used to calculate everything from mortgages to auto loans, topping 4.1% last week. On the data front, September retail sales and Sept. industrial production figures are out Thursday, followed by Sept. housing starts and building permits Friday. Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose Monday, as investors assessed China’s weekend press briefing and awaited a slew of economic data this week from the region. Mainland China’s CSI 300 rose 1.9% to close at 3,691.3, following a choppy trading session. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.9% as of its final hour of trade. Japan’s market was closed for a holiday. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.47% to end at 8,252.8. Taiwan markets edged 0.32% higher to settle at 22,975.29. South Korea’s blue-chip index Kospi gained over 1% to finish at 2,623.29 while the small-cap Kosdaq index ended nearly flat at 770.26. Crude oil futures fell nearly 2% on Monday after OPEC cut its demand forecast for 2024 for the third time in a row. OPEC now sees demand growing by 1.9 million barrels per day in 2024, down from 2 million bpd in its previous forecast, according to a report released Monday. The group expects demand to grow by 1.6 million bpd in 2025, compared with 1.7 million bpd previously. West Texas Intermediate November contract: $74.08 per barrel, down $1.48, or 1.96%. Year to date, U.S. crude oil has gained more than 3%. Brent December contract: $77.58 per barrel, down $1.46, or 1.85%. Year to date, the global benchmark has risen nearly 1%. Gold prices steadied on Monday amid a risk-off mood driven by an underwhelming China fiscal stimulus, while investors awaited comments from U.S. Federal Reserve officials for hints on its interest rate outlook. Spot gold edged up 0.1% at $2,658.67 per ounce, after hitting its highest since Oct. 4 at $2,666.72 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures were flat at $2,676. “Although moves are small, feels like a risk-off environment, with the white metals down and the yellow metal up,” UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.