U.S. stock futures on Monday pointed to a cautious start, as investors awaited a barrage of earnings and pivotal economic news with major indexes at or near record levels.
What’s happening
-
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
YM00,
-0.06%
fell 69 points, or 0.2%, to 38189. -
S&P 500 futures
ES00,
+0.03%
dropped 4 points, or 0.1%, to 4913. -
Nasdaq-100 futures
NQ00,
+0.18%
increased 17 points, or 0.1%, to 17544.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
rose 60 points, or 0.16%, to 38109, the S&P 500
SPX
declined 3 points, or 0.07%, to 4891, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP
dropped 55 points, or 0.36%, to 15455.
Friday marked the fifth record close this year for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with the S&P 500 finishing only a tenth below its all-time high.
What’s driving markets
It’s a huge week for earnings with results due out of Microsoft
MSFT,
-0.23%,
Apple
AAPL,
-0.90%,
Alphabet
GOOGL,
+0.21%,
Amazon
AMZN,
+0.87%
and Meta Platforms
META,
+0.24%,
in a week that also includes a Fed interest-rate decision, jobs market data and the Treasury’s quarterly refunding.
“For a data dependent Fed, and one that still needs to reclaim its inflation fighting credibility, the likely response will be to continue to guide away from a March rate cut, but also remind us the Fed will be willing to act if need be—i.e., retain optionality,” said Richard de Chazal, a macro analyst at William Blair. “We should also expect to get a little more flesh on the bone with regard to the timing of the [quantitative tightening] tapering program.”
De Chazal added that earnings so far haven’t been too impressive — earnings for the 124 S&P 500 companies that have reported so far are up 2.3% vs. expectations of a 1.2% increase, which is below the average gap of 4.4 percentage points.
There’s also geopolitical worries after an attack killed three U.S. soldiers and injured 34 more in Jordan. Oil futures
CL00,
+0.26%
were trading under $78 a barrel, while gold
GC00,
+0.40%
rose and the yield on the 10-year Treasury
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
fell. Yields move in the opposite direction to prices.
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