Traders on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Source: NYSE
US stock futures fell slightly on Sunday evening as Wall Street appeared to recover from a losing week.
Futures contracts linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 78 points or 0.2%. Those for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 lost 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively.
The move in futures comes after the three major indices lost ground last week. The Dow and S&P 500 slid Friday, closing out the week 0.5% and 0.8% respectively, breaking the two-week earnings streaks. The Nasdaq Composite rose on Friday, but still closed the week down 0.8%.
The battle for stocks came when bond yields rallied last week, putting pressure on technology and growth stocks that dragged the market back from last year’s pandemic sell-off. On Sunday, futures rose at the price of 10-year Treasury bonds, indicating lower interest rates.
Even with last week’s weakness, the S&P 500 and Dow are still near record highs, and the Nasdaq isn’t far off. Darrell Cronk, chief investment officer of Wells Fargo’s Wealth and Investment Management, said the stock market still looked on track for a multi-year climb.
“If you went down the list and put boxes of check-check-check-check, you would look at this in a vacuum … and say it looks like an early recovery cycle of about a year that probably has a number of the years to come, ” said Cronk.
Optimism about the markets and the path of the US economy has grown as vaccines are rolled out across the country, with the rate at which Americans getting shots accelerated in recent weeks. However, several states are seeing an increase in Covid-19 cases.
Last weekend, the industry and services sector produced an important piece of company news. Canadian Pacific Railway announced it was acquiring Kansas City Southern in a $ 25 billion deal, creating a railroad giant connecting Canada, the US and Mexico.
As for the economic data, investors will look to the housing market again on Monday when the National Association of Realtors releases existing home sales for February. Economists polled by Dow Jones predict a 2.8% decline.