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U.S. equity futures moved higher again Monday, while Treasury yields and the dollar held steady, as investors looked to a key inflation reading later in the week to either challenge or extend the market’s current May rally.
Stocks ended firmly higher last week, pulling the S&P 500 past its 50-day moving average, a key Wall Street performance metric, and extending the Dow’s run of consecutive session gains to eight, the longest winning streak in nearly six months.
Better-than-expected earnings as well as weakening labor market data were last week’s principal drivers, with collective first quarter S&P 500 profits set to rise by 7.4% now that just over 80% of the benchmark has reported.
Related: Stocks defy ‘Sell in May’ with spring rally, but summer gains may be tough
Last week’s jobless claims data also showed the biggest week-on-week increase since last August, a move that could suggest a slower pace of hiring into the summer months that would dampen wage-related inflation pressures.
The Commerce Department will publish its April CPI estimate on May 15, with economists looking for an easing in the monthly increase to 0.3% and a year-on-year rate of 3.6%.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will be closely-tracking details of the Commerce Department’s April inflation report Wednesday.
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Investors will also get a series of readings on the state of the U.S. consumer with April retail sales data on May 15, as well as first quarter earnings from Home Depot (HD) and Walmart (WMT) on May 14 and May 16 respectively.
At present, investors are expecting the Federal Reserve to delivery the first of two rate cuts this year in September, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch.
Heading into the start of the trading day on Wall Street, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500, which is up 3.7% for the month, are priced for a modest 7 point opening bell gain.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, is set for a 40 point gain while the tech-focused Nasdaq is called 42 points higher.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields were last marked steady at 4.481% while 2-year notes were pegged at 4.851% heading into the start of the New York trading session.
GameStop (GME) shares were a notable early mover, rising nearly 20% in pre-market trading, after the meme stock trader Keith Gill, known as ‘roaring kitty’, posted on his X social media account for the first time in three years.
— Roaring Kitty (@TheRoaringKitty) May 13, 2024
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, was marked 0.04% lower at 105.256.
In overseas markets, Europe’s Stoxx 600 was little-changed in early Frankfurt trading, slipping just 0.05%, with investors focused on inflation and GDP readings later in the week.
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Overnight in Asia, a surprise move by the Bank of Japan to lower the level of government bond purchases in its regular operations added value to the yen, which rose to 155.85 against the U.S. dollar, but sent the Nikkei 225 0.13% lower into the close of trading.
The region-wide MSCI ex-Japan index, meanwhile, was marked 0.56% higher thanks in part to solid gains for stocks in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
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