Check back for updates throughout the trading day
U.S. equity futures powered higher again Monday, while Treasury yields and the dollar held steady, as investors looked to decipher the impact of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on the autumn election.
Officials have said the gunman who attempted to kill the former President during a campaign rally in Buter, Pennsylvania, likely acted alone, but have yet to establish a motive for the shooting, which came within inches of taking his life.
Trump is scheduled to attend the Republican National Convention this week in Milwaukee, with polls and betting markets showing a commanding lead for the former President following the weekend events and the ongoing questions tied to the health and mental fitness of President Joe Biden.
Markets are starting to price-in the impact of a second term for former President Donald Trump.
The prospect of a second Trump term could be driving stocks higher, with the Nasdaq set to extend a six-week winning streak and the S&P 500 on tack to test its all-time high of 5,655.56 points early in the session.
Following the attack on Donald Trump, bets on a Trump presidency have skyrocketed. How attacks on presidents and candidates have shaped US history. https://t.co/7fHRlj5LCT pic.twitter.com/6Erk66tZZO
— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) July 14, 2024
Markets will also eye comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who is slated to speak as part of discussion panel at the Economic Club of Washington at 12:30 Eastern time.
Softer-than-expected consumer price inflation data last week, as well as a weakening labor market, has propelled the chances of a September rate cut to around 93%, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, although no rate changes are expected at the central bank’s meeting later this month in Washington.
Related: CPI inflation report fuels Fed interest rate cut bets
Wall Street will also be gearing-up for a busy week of corporate earnings, with around 46 S&P 500 companies reporting second quarter profits over the next five days, including Goldman Sachs (GS) , UnitedHealth (UNH) , Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) , Netflix (NFLX) and American Express (AXP) .
LSEG data suggests collective second quarter earnings for the S&P 500 are likely to rise 9.6% from last year to $489.9 billion, with third quarter profits coming in at around $526.8 billion.
Heading into the start of the trading day, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500, which is up 17.73% for the year, are priced for a 22 point opening bell gain, while those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average are indicating a 210 point advance.
The tech-focused Nasdaq, meanwhile, is looking at a more modest 85 point gain, but remains 22.56% higher for the year with a third quarter gain of around 3.75%.
Stocks on the move include Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) , which is reportedly close to a $23 billion takeover of cybersecurity startup Wiz in what would be its biggest acquisition on record.
More Wall Street Analysts:
Analyst revisits Nvidia stock price target after Blackwell checksAnalysts prescribe new Walgreens stock price targets after earningsAnalyst revises Facebook parent stock price target in AI arms race
In overseas markets, the European Stoxx 600 index was marked 0.2% lower in Frankfurt, with Britain’s FTSE 100 down 0.21% in London.
Overnight in Asia, a weaker-than-expected second quarter GDP reading from China, which showed the slowest growth rate in a year, held down gains in the region, with the MSCI ex-Japan index falling 0.21% lower into the close of trading.
Stocks in Japan, meanwhile, were closed for the country’s national Marine Day observance.
Related: Veteran fund manager sees world of pain coming for stocks
