U.S. equity futures moved higher in early Monday trading, helped by a pullback in the dollar and steady Treasury bond yields, as investors looked to claw back some of last week’s sharp declines heading into a key week for tech stocks on Wall Street.
The Nasdaq ended 2.5% lower on Friday, extending it’s worst week of decline in three months, amid a broader market selloff that erased all of the S&P 500’s February gains and loped nearly 750 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Markets were spooked by a disappointing reading of services sector activity, the economy’s key growth driver, from S&P Global’s PMI report as well as a big jump in inflation expectations from the University of Michigan’s benchmark consumer survey.
Both concerns will be front-and-center again this week with the Commerce Department publishing its second estimate of fourth quarter GDP on Thursday and the Bureau of Economic analysis following with its PCE price index data, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, on Friday.
The readings will also follow the market’s key February focus after the close of trading on Wednesday, when AI chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) publishes its fourth quarter earnings report and updates investors on its near-term outlook.
The group’s guidance on AI demand will be crucial for market sentiment following the emergence of China-based DeepSeek’s AI chatbot, allegedly created at a fraction of the price of its rivals, and the hundreds of billions in planned AI spending by hyperscalers such as Microsoft (MSFT) , Amazon (AMZN) , Meta Platforms (META) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) .
Nvidia earnings after the close of trading on Wednesday are expected to be the market’s key focus following last week’s selloff.
Nvidia’s updates will effectively close out the fourth quarter earnings season, which has topped most Wall Street forecasts and delivered year-on-year profit growth of around 15.7%.
That pace is expected to slow to around 8.3% over the three months ending in March, a traditionally weaker month for corporate profits, but the full-year forecast of an 11.1% gain remains on track.
Heading into the start of the trading day on Wall Street, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500, which is now down 0.45% for the month, are priced for a solid 32 point opening bell gain, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average priced for a 297 point advance.
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The tech-focused Nasdaq, meanwhile, is called 93 points higher with Nvidia, Tesla (TSLA) and Intel (INTC) active in premarket trading.
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) shares were also in focus, rising 1.4% after the investment vehicle of billionaire Warren Buffett posted its third straight year of record profits while noting his cash position hit an all-time high of $334.2 billion.
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In Europe, Germany’s DAX performance index was marked 0.9% higher in Frankfurt following the weekend election win for the center-right Christian Democrats, which paves the way for their leader, Fredrich Mertz, to form a coalition government over the coming weeks.
The result, which will sideline the far-right AfD part to the opposition in the German Bundestag, lifted the euro to a one-month high against the U.S. dollar and helped the regional Stoxx 600 benchmark to a 0.24% gain in mid-day trading.
Overnight in Asia, stocks in the region extended their recent run of gains with the MSCI ex-Japan benchmark rising 0.24% into the close of trading while the Nikkei 225 remained close for the annual celebration of the Emperor’s Birthday.
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