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U.S. equity futures edge higher Monday, while Treasury yields and the dollar eased, as investors looked to a key week on Wall Street with a focus on jobs data, a host of corporate earnings and a Federal Reserve rate decision.
Stocks ended firmly higher on April 26, extending the best weekly gain for the S&P 500 since early November, following tepid inflation data for March and stronger-than-expected earnings from megacap tech giants Alphabet (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) .
Treasury yields were also on the back foot during that session, and eased further in overnight trading, following a mixed set of auctions and a reading of the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge that was largely in line with Wall Street forecasts.
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Benchmark 10-year-note yields were last marked at 4.624% heading into the start of the New York trading session, while 2-year notes held at 4.971%.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, was marked 0.26% lower at 105.667 heading into the start of the Fed’s two-day policy meeting on April 30.
Rate traders aren’t expecting any changes to the central bank’s base lending late, and they have pared bets on reductions later in the year as price pressures remain elevated and the economy continues to expand.
The CME Group’s FedWatch tool suggests traders see the first and only rate cut of the year coming in November.
The Federal Reserve will publish its next rate decision and statement on Wednesday May 1.
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Jobs data this week, however, will go a long way toward defining those forecasts. Investors are braced for employment-cost data, Jolts job-openings figures, payroll-processing group ADP’s National Employment Report and the Labor Department’s nonfarm-payrolls report for April, all over the coming days.
Wall Street will also navigate the busiest earnings session of the year this week, with updates from 175 S&P 500 companies including Amazon (AMZN) on April 30 and Apple (AAPL) on May 2.
Collective first quarter S&P 500 profits are forecast to rise 5.6% from last year to $435.3 billion, according to LSEG data, with profits over the three months ending in June rising 10.4% to $447.4 billion.
Heading into the start of the trading day, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500, which is still down 3% for the month, are priced for a 12 point opening-bell gain. Those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average are indicating a 70 point bump.
The tech-focused Nasdaq, meanwhile, is set for a 60 point advance, thanks in part to an 8.7% surge in Tesla (TSLA) tied to its winning informal approval for its driver assistance technology in China.
More Wall Street Analysts:
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In overseas markets, Europe’s Stoxx 600 rose 0.26% in early Frankfurt trading, while the FTSE 100 gained 0.57% in London.
Overnight in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.81% higher in Tokyo while the MSCI ex-Japan regional benchmark was marked 0.91% higher into the close of trading.
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