U.S. stock futures nudged higher early Monday, as hopes the Federal Reserve has finished raising borrowing costs continued to underpin sentiment.
How are stock-index futures trading
-
S&P 500 futures
ES00,
+0.19%
rose 7 points, or 0.2%, to 4383 -
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
YM00,
+0.08%
added 35 points, or 0.1%, to 34162 -
Nasdaq 100 futures
NQ00,
+0.26%
climbed 31 points, or 0.2%, to 15210
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
rose 222 points, or 0.66%, to 34061, the S&P 500
SPX
increased 41 points, or 0.94%, to 4358, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP
gained 184 points, or 1.38%, to 13478.
What’s driving markets
Futures indicate stocks will look on Monday to extend their latest rally, though additional gains will be meager.
The S&P 500 rose 5.85% last week, the best weekly gain in nearly a year, after comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell and signs of a cooling labor market forced bond yields sharply lower as expectations grew that the U.S. central bank was finished raising interest rates in this cycle.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y,
which just a few weeks ago had traded at a fresh 16-year high above 5%, at one point on Friday dipped below 4.5%.
However, the new week sees yields pick back up to 4.59%, and this is somewhat constraining equity bulls’ newfound optimism early Monday.
“Equities are playing second fiddle as Treasury bonds are unquestionably the primary drivers, with the S&P 500 merely tagging along for the ride,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.
“Whether the recent rebound in bonds can be sustained holds significant implications. This week’s bond auctions will play a crucial role, and the upcoming CPI release later this month will be decisive significantly, as it might eliminate the possibility of another rate hike entirely,” Innes added.
It’s a slow start to the week in terms of economic data, with just the Federal Reserve’s senior loan officer survey for October, due for release at 2 p.m.. Eastern. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook is expected to speak at Duke University at 11 a.m..
Meanwhile, the third quarter earnings season continues, but at a slower pace. NXP Semiconductors
NXPI,
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
VRTX,
and Tripadvisor
TRIP,
will release their results after Monday’s closing bell. Highlights for the week may be Uber
UBER,
on Tuesday and Walt Disney
DIS,
on Wednesday.
With 81% of S&P 500 companies having reported results, 82% of those have delivered a positive earnings per share surprise and 62% have posted a positive revenue surprise, according to John Butters, senior earnings analyst at Factset.
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