cautious optimism ahead of another batch of us corporate earnings has left stock futures inching higher early tuesday on monday the dow jones industrial average djia rose 101 points or 03 to 33987 the sp 500 spx increased 14 points or 033 to 4151 and the nasdaq composite comp gained 34 points or 028 to 12158 moves across equity futures are positive but meagre as traders wait for the first quarter earnings season to slip back into gear after a quiet start to the week companies presenting their numbers on tuesday include bank of america bac  goldman sachs gs  bank of new york mellon bk  johnson  johnson lockheed martin lmt and netflix nflx  results so far have been generally wellreceived and this has helped the sp 500 to hold near the top of the 3800 to 4200 range it has occupied for about five months as softer inflation data of late has also reduced concerns about faster federal reserve rate rises “the sp500 is approaching the highest levels reached in february as the market focus is shifting back to economic and corporate data” said ipek ozkardeskaya senior analyst at swissquote bank “strongerthanexpected earnings could give a hand to equity bulls” she added but warned this could falter if recent signs of us economic resilience pushed yields back higher and data out of china on tuesday suggested an important growth driver of the global economy was improving with gdp up 45 in the first quarter boosted by increased consumption and retail sales after authorities abruptly abandoned the stringent “zerocovid” strategy mark newton head of technical strategy at fundstrat noted that us stocks rallied in the last couple of hours of monday’s session and this bade well for future gains “prices managed to successfully rebound from early losses into a bullish endofday close which could lead higher by tuesdaywednesday of this week…given banking strength and semiconductor weakness being contained near key support a rally back above last week’s highs looks likely” said newton “gains could help spx near the critical 4200 level yet this level remains the key hurdle for upside progress for those expecting that spx can and will exceed resistance and strengthen into may” he added us economic updates set for release on tuesday include march housing starts and building permits at 830 am fed governor michelle bowman is due to speak at 1 pm all times eastern