Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on October 16, 2024.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
US equity futures jumped on Monday morning as investors looked for megacap tech profits to drive the Nasdaq Composite to new highs this week. Cool geopolitical conditions are also helping risk sentiment.
The weekend airstrikes by Israel on Iran did not target oil or nuclear facilities as feared and oil futures they are cheaper at the beginning of trading.
Futures are tied to the Dow The Jones Industrial Average added 179 points, or 0.42%. S&P 500 futures gained 0.53% and Nasdaq 100 futures changed to +0.73%.
The market was divided at the end of last week. Tech-heavy Friday Nasdaq Composite jumped to a new intraday all-time high, up 0.56% to close at 18,518.61. On the flip side, the Dow shedding 259.96 points, or 0.61%, to close at 42,114.40. A wide market S&P 500 inch down by 0.03% to 5,808.12.
The Dow and S&P snapped six-week winning streaks, but the Nasdaq posted its seventh consecutive positive week.
Wall Street is gearing up for a big week in the markets that will mark the busiest week of the third-quarter earnings reporting season and the final week before the US Presidential election on November 5. Five of the Big Seven companies – Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Amazon and Apple – are scheduled to report third quarter earnings.
“One of the things we’re going to do is that these megacap tech names continue to strengthen their commitment to AI in technology spending broadly,” Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment officer at BMO Wealth Management, told CNBC. “I don’t think there’s going to be any retreat from that.”
Nasdaq Composite, YTD
“If for some reason, we don’t know – if some of the technology companies that are reporting are talking about hitting the brakes a little bit on some of these investments – the market is not going to get it very well,” he said. “So it will have an impact, so that the market hears that the company continues to commit to spending in this area, if not accelerate.”
Traders are also watching for a slew of key economic data this week, including the September jobs report due there; September’s personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, price index, is expected to be; and the preliminary reading on third-quarter gross domestic product comes out on Wednesday.
