Wall Street set to rise as results beat low expectations

By Tanya Agrawal

REUTERS - U.S. stock were set to rise at the open on Tuesday as a spate of companies beat lowered expectations, helping to ease fears of a disappointing earnings quarter.

Nearly 75 percent of the S&P 500 components that have reported earnings so far have beat analyst expectations, topping the 70 percent average in the last four quarters. However, just 45.8 percent have beat on revenue, compared with the 58 percent average top line beat over the last year.

Dow components Verizon, DuPont and United Technologies beat expectations even as the strong dollar weighed on the results of DuPont and UTX. Verizon shares were up 0.2 percent at $49.47, DuPont rose 0.33 percent to $73.08 and United Technologies added 1.62 percent to $118.40.

The dollar is up almost 9 percent since the beginning of the year against a basket of major currencies. A strong dollar hurts companies with large overseas operations.

"Market is in momentum mode and is taking the path of least resistance. It's still early in the week and things could change with some major tech stock reporting later in the week but there has been the absence of a real negative factor," said Brian Fenske, head of sales trading at ITG in New York.

IBM shares were down 0.37 percent at $165.55 in premarket trading after its earnings exceeded low expectations on Monday as it shed unprofitable businesses to focus on cloud-computing.

Mylan was up 8.8 percent at $74 after Israeli drugmaker Teva made an unsolicited offer for the company for $82 per share, in what could be the drug industry's largest takeover attempt this year. Teva was up 2.6 percent at $64.92.

Earnings expected later on Tuesday include Chipotle, Yahoo and Yum Brands.

Hedge fund manager David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital has taken a new stake in General Motors Co, nearly a year after selling off it position in the automaker, the firm said in a letter to clients on Monday. GM shares rose 0.8 percent premarket.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Savio D'Souza)