Wall Street set to open flat as earnings season gathers pace

By Tanya Agrawal

(Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes looked set to open little changed on Monday ahead of earnings reports from a clutch of tech heavyweights, including Google parent Alphabet, this week and a two-day Federal Reserve meeting that is set to begin on Tuesday.

Alphabet will report results after market close. Amazon and Facebook are due to report results later this week.

Tech continues to be the best performing S&P sector this year, despite concerns about stretched valuations.

Analysts have raised their expectations for S&P 500 earnings to 9.6 percent, compared with an 8 percent rise projected at the start of the month, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"With indices trading at record highs and central banks favoring a less accommodative stance, earnings will become increasingly important in maintaining or expanding on these levels," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at online forex broker Oanda.

Dow e-minis were down 3 points, or 0.01 percent, with 17,003 contracts changing hands at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT).

S&P 500 e-minis were down 0.25 points, or 0.01 percent, with 142,655 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 2.25 points, or 0.04 percent, on volume of 23,087 contracts.

The market will also keep an eye on political developments in Washington, with rising doubts about President Donald Trump's ability to legislate his pro-growth policies after the failure of the healthcare bill.

The International Monetary Fund shaved its forecasts for U.S. growth to 2.1 percent for both 2017 and 2018 from its earlier estimates of 2.3 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively, citing lack of details on the Trump administration's stimulus measures.

The Federal Reserve will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday. Although there are no expectations of an interest rate hike, the market will await the Fed's statement for clues regarding the path of future rate hikes.

The Markit U.S Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for July is expected to come in at 52.1, compared with 52.0 in the previous month. The data is expected at 9:45 a.m. ET (1345 GMT).

The National Association of Realtors is likely to say that existing home sales dropped to 5.57 million units in June. U.S. home resales unexpectedly rose in May to 5.62 million units.

Shares of Halliburton were up 2.9 percent after the oilfield services provider swung to a quarterly profit.

Hasbro was down 4.7 percent after the toymaker posted the smallest sales beat in one and a half years.

WebMD Health jumped 19.8 percent after KKR & Co agreed to buy the U.S. online health publisher in a deal valued at about $2.8 billion. KKR was up 0.4 percent.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)