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,
-0.08%
fell 69 points, or 0.2%, to 38189. -
S&P 500 futures
ES00,
+0.02%
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,
Apple
AAPL,
Alphabet
GOOGL,
Amazon
AMZN,
and Meta Platforms
META,
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,
were trading under $78 a barrel, while gold
GC00,
rose and the yield on the 10-year Treasury
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
fell. Yields move in the opposite direction to prices.
