Wall Street to open higher after Abe's election victory

By Sruthi Shankar

REUTERS - Wall Street was set to open slightly higher on Monday as investors cheered the continuation of Abenomics following the Japanese ruling party's emphatic win in the weekend polls.

Third-quarter earnings season is also in focus, with 37 percent of S&P 500 companies set to report during the week. Corporate earnings have got off to a strong start, with nearly three quarter of the 88 S&P companies beating profit expectations.

"Investors are being cheered on by the global markets after the Japanese election," said Peter Cardillo, Chief Market Economist at First Standard Financial in New York.

"The strength continues based on the prospect of fiscal reform and good earnings."

Wall Street closed at record highs on Friday after the Senate passed a budget resolution, lifting hopes that President Donald Trump's tax plans may move forward.

The top Senate Republican and the White House budget director said on Sunday they hoped for action on the new tax package by the end of the year, while keeping their options open on how to pay for sweeping tax cuts.

Investors are also keen to know who will take over from Janet Yellen as the next Federal Reserve chief after her term expires in February.

Trump said he would make his choice to lead the Fed soon and was still considering at least three people: Fed Governor Jerome Powell, Stanford University economist John Taylor and Yellen.

At 8:33 a.m. ET (1233 GMT), Dow e-minis were up 21 points, or 0.09 percent, with 24,470 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis were up 1.75 points, or 0.07 percent, with 147,737 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 10 points, or 0.16 percent, on volume of 26,232 contracts.

Hasbro dipped 4.6 percent in premarket trading after the toymaker's forecast for the holiday season fell below estimates as Toys'R'Us bankruptcy began to hurt its operations. Shares of Mattel fell 2 percent.

T-Mobile gained 1.39 percent after the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier's profit topped estimates on subscription growth.

Telecom software company Broadsoft jumped about 17 percent after Cisco agreed to buy it in a deal valued at about $1.9 billion including debt. Cisco shares were up 0.5 percent.

Tesla rose 1.4 percent after the electric car maker said it was in talks with the Shanghai municipal government to set up a factory in the region and expects to agree on a plan by the end of the year.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)