By Sruthi Shankar
(Reuters) - The Dow Jones Industrial Average was poised to open above 23,000 for the first time on Wednesday following a series of upbeat earnings reports from marquee companies.
* The index briefly surpassed the milestone on Tuesday but closed at 22,997 points, up 3,235 points since the start of the year. The latest 1,000-point increase was covered in roughly half the time it took the index to move from 21,000 to 22,000.
* Solid earnings so far, strong economic data and hopes that President Donald Trump may be able to make progress on tax cuts have helped the market rally this year.
* IBM, a Dow component, jumped 4.6 percent in premarket hours, after its quarterly revenue beat estimates and the company hinted at sales growth after nearly six years of declines.
* U.S. Senate Republicans on Monday gained crucial support for a vote on a budget resolution that is vital to Trump's hopes of signing sweeping tax reform legislation into law before January.
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* The dollar edged higher as markets awaited further news on the possible appointment of a hawk as the Federal Reserve chair and progress on tax reforms.
* Trump has a pool of five candidates to choose from and is likely to announce his choice before going to Asia in early November, according to a source familiar with the situation.
* The Fed issues the Beige Book, a periodic snapshot on the health of the U.S. economy, that is likely to show if inflation pressures are accelerating. The report is due at 2:00 p.m. ET (1800 GMT).
* The central bank still appears on course to raise interest rates again in December despite muted inflation. The odds of a December move stand at 96.7 percent, compared with 82.7 percent a week ago, according to CMEGroup's FedWatch tool.
* New York Fed President William Dudley and his Dallas counterpart, Robert Kaplan, both voting members in the Fed's rate-setting committee this year, are scheduled to speak later in the day.
* World stocks stayed near peaks as China's Communist Party conference opened and the focus in Europe turned to speeches from top euro zone central bankers before next week's key policy meeting.
* A Commerce Department report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, is likely to show housing starts for September remained unchanged at a 1.18 million-unit rate.
* Abbott rose 2.07 percent ahead of the medical device maker's earnings report.
* Chipotle Mexican Grill slipped 2.28 percent after Bank of America Merrill downgraded the company's stock to "underperform" and slashed its price target by $105 to $285.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
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