Stock futures rise following S&P 500′s third winning week in a row
U.S. stock index futures rose on Monday morning, following the S&P 500′s third straight weekly gain, as investors shifted focus to a key inflation report this week. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 139 points or 0.4%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.5% and 0.6%, respectively. Monday’s gain follows a weekly rise for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite as a surprisingly strong monthly jobs report eased some recession fears. The resilient labor market also signaled that the economy could withstand more rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. “The stock market rally since the June 16 low looks to have legs in our view based on economic data and earnings results reported through last Friday,” Oppenheimer chief investment strategist John Stoltzfus said in a note to clients. Some clean energy related shares gained after the Senate passed a $430 billion climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, which is expected to be passed by the House later this week. The Invesco Solar ETF was higher by 1.7% in early trading. A new reading for the consumer price index, slated for release Wednesday, will give investors more clarification about the central bank’s next move at its policy meeting in September. Traders are now pricing in a higher likelihood of a 0.75 percentage point hike next month, which would be the third straight increase of that magnitude. Headline CPI, which includes energy and food, is expected to dip to 8.7% in July, from a 40-year high of 9.1% in June, according to Dow Jones estimates. Tech stocks in Hong Kong pulled the broader index lower on Monday as Asia markets traded mixed. SoftBank reported earnings after the market close in Japan. The Hang Seng index ended the session 0.77% lower at 20,045.77. The Nikkei 225 in Japan was up 0.26% at 28,249.24, while the Topix index was 0.22% higher at 1,951.41. Mainland China markets were positive. The Shanghai Composite gained 0.31% to 3,236.93 and the Shenzhen Component rose 0.27% to 12,302.15. Oil prices dropped on Monday, hovering near multi-month lows, as recession fears hurt demand outlook and data pointed to a slow recovery in China’s crude imports last month. Brent crude futures dropped $1.66, or 1.8%, to $93.26 per barrel. Front-month prices hit the lowest levels since February last week, tumbling 13.7% and posting their largest weekly drop since April 2020. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude stood at $87.52 per barrel, for a loss of 1.7%, extending losses after a 9.7% fall last week. China, the world’s top crude importer, imported 8.79 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in July, up from a four-year low in June, but still 9.5% lower than a year ago, customs data showed. Gold prices edged lower on Monday after solid U.S. jobs data last week boosted the prospect of aggressive interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve, lifting the dollar and Treasury yields. Spot gold was down 0.1% at $1,771.74 per ounce, as of 0454 GMT, after dropping 1% in the previous session. U.S. gold futures eased 0.2% to $1,788.20.