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Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG:

Yahoo Finance UK's Pedro Goncalves reports:

Investors are going global and targeting tech with most of the popular funds at investment platform Interactive Investor focusing on technology shares.

The UK’s second largest investment platform for retail investors has launched an investment barometer, which ranks the most-popular funds, investment trusts, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) each quarter.

Many investors are increasingly seeking focused exposure to the US technology sector. This trend is highlighted by the fact that seven of the top 50 investment funds are specifically targeting the tech industry.

While the risk of late entry into a trending sector remains, investors are betting on the longevity of artificial intelligence (AI) as a pivotal growth driver in the years ahead.

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Our US team reports:

GM (GM) once again posted strong second quarter results, and boosted its guidance for a second time this year as customers continue buying the Detroit-based automaker's gas-powered vehicles, trucks — and even EVs.

For the quarter, GM reported record revenue of $47.97bn versus $45.51bn estimated (Bloomberg consensus), which represents a 7.2% jump compared to a year ago ($44.75bn). GM reported adjusted EPS of $3.06, compared to estimates of $2.70, with GM also reporting adjusted EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) of $4.438bn, easily topping estimates of $3.88bn.

Even so, stock dropped more than 6.6% in early trade following the report:

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Also a beat for Lockheed in its pre-market earnings. Shares look set to open about 2.4% higher.

Here are the numbers:

It's now trading 14.3% higher in premarket.

Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro senior market analyst, lays out what to watch for when it comes to the greenback:

Tesla shares were muted in pre-market trading after climbing 5% during Monday’s session as the EV maker is set to report its second-quarter results after the US market close on Tuesday.

Tesla's profit margins are expected to have fallen 0.9% YoY to $24.7bn (£19.12bn) as the company struggled with the delivery figures.

Earnings per share (EPS) are estimated to have dropped 41% YoY to $0.46. Over the last couple of years, Tesla has cut vehicle prices multiple times, which has taken a toll on its once industry-leading margins.

Meanwhile, CEO Elon Musk said the company will have humanoid robots in production for internal use in 2025.

"Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026," Musk said in an X post.

Here's what's propping up the top end of the FTSE 100 on Tuesday:

Spotify is scheduled to report its fiscal second-quarter earnings on Tuesday before the US market opens. Wall Street anticipates that the music streaming company will once again achieve a profit on an adjusted basis, reflecting the impact of its recent "efficiency" strategy.

"Spotify is at an inflection point with recent price changes highlighting its commitment to expanding gross margin and profit," noted Geetha Ranganathan, senior media analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

The company is expected to report revenue of €3.81bn, up from €3.18bn in Q2 2023. Adjusted earnings per share are projected to be €1.04, an improvement from the adjusted loss of €1.55 reported in the same period last year. Total monthly active users are forecasted to reach 631 million, compared to 551 million in Q2 2023, while premium subscribers are expected to increase to 245 million from 220 million.

The stock has surged, with shares gaining more than 50% since the start of the year and up about 70% on a yearly basis, Yahoo Finance writes.

"We continue to see a long runway for growth in music streaming," Morgan Stanley analyst Ben Swinburne said in a note published earlier this month.

"This view is supported by paid subscription streaming penetration of global smartphones of just ~15% at year-end 2023 and service offerings that remain in our view underpriced when compared to historical consumer spending on music."

The latest from Rightmove:

The average rental price in London is now £2,661 per month – 4% higher than this time a year ago, according to quarterly data from housing platform Rightmove.

Meanwhile, rents are rising at a faster clip in the rest of the UK, with the average price of a property outside of London up 7% compared with last year to £1,314 per month.

In the first quarter, the same measure showed rental prices in the capital reaching a record of £2,633 per calendar month, with the average price outside of London hitting £1,291.

The figures represent a new, depressing, quarterly record. While the overall balance between supply and while demand has continued to improve during the second quarter of this year, the latest snapshot of the rental market highlights how busy it remains compared to more normal levels seen pre-pandemic. Both letting agents and tenants are unlikely to feel any improvements yet.

The number of enquiries each rental property is receiving from would-be tenants is now 17 which, while down from 26 this time last year, is more than double the eight at this time in 2019.

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Google owner Alphabet is expected to report a fourth straight quarter of double-digit revenue growth on an uptick in the advertising market. It will announce its results to the markets after the US closing bell on Tuesday.

The company’s stock is near all-time highs and continues to benefit from strong Search and YouTube revenue growth. Google's progress in GenAI, coupled with better-than-expected ad revenue, has boosted investor sentiment.

“We view current valuation as undemanding given the strength of the underlying digital ad market and the considerable optionality for Google across advertising and cloud, as AI monetization continues,” wrote Wedbush analyst Scott Devit.

At its recent price of $182, Alphabet goes for 21-times the consensus forecast for 2025 earnings.

Google on Monday scrapped plans to remove user-tracking cookies from its Chrome browser, under pressure from advertisers who use cookies' data to target advertisements.

Google’s talks to acquire the cybersecurity startup Wiz for a planned $23bn have fallen apart, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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Here's Deutsche Bank analysts' take on what the odds are saying for a Harris presidency:

Stock indexes fell during Asian trading hours with political uncertainty in the US offsetting any upside from rate cuts in China.

The Nikkei (^N225) was broadly flat in Japan, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng (^HSI) was down 0.8% and the SSE Composite (000001.SS) fell 1.7%.

The People's Bank of China cut both short and long-term rates on Monday, as officials look to boot up its growth engine following a set of data that showed lagging growth metrics.

Here's how stocks are faring in premarket, after strong gains on Monday:

US tech stocks ripped higher on Monday as investors assessed the political landscape following president Joe Biden's exit from the presidential race and braced for the start of megacap tech earnings.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) gained more than 1% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose roughly 1.6%, both coming off their worst weekly losses since April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) increased 0.3%.

Chip heavyweight Nvidia (NVDA) led the broad-based tech rebound following heavy losses last week as investors rotated out of big cap names.

Hello from London. Today we're still following what's going on in the US, with Kamala Harris winning enough delegate backing to qualify her for nomination for the presidency race.

The wind has come out of the sales of European markets a bit, with the FTSE 100 gliding lower in premarket.

Meanwhile, big hitters are set to report across the world, with news ahead from Tesla, Google and LVMH.

Let's get to it.