Wall Street keeps pointing higher despite little to cheer

Despite no progress being seen for either the US government shut down or the US-China trade talks, Wall Street is continuing to grind its way higher. JP Morgan and Delta Airlines, both of which reported earnings yesterday, cautioned that the stand-off over funding in Washington would have a meaningful impact on their revenues and with reporting season accelerating, arguably this is a line we'll see repeated in due course.

BNY Mellon, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs are all set to report before the opening bell. Any comments here surrounding the wider health of the economy could act as a catalyst for the market, especially given economic data is set to be relatively thin on the ground in the hours ahead. Alcoa is also due to publish its quarterly statement after the close tonight, but for now anyway the sentiment on Wall Street doesn't appear to be struggling despite the lacklustre macroeconomic backdrop.

Ahead of the open we're calling the DOW up 34 at 24100 and the S&P up 4 at 2614.