Stock futures just after Dow, S&P 500 hit new records

Futures contracts pegged to major US stock indices held steady during Sunday night’s overnight session, suggesting Wall Street could see muted trading on Monday after hitting new records last week.

Dow futures lost 2 points, while contracts linked to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were also little changed.

The lukewarm move in the futures market on Sunday followed a new record close for the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday, as it gained nearly 300 points to finish at 33,800.6. The S&P 500 gained 0.8%, hitting its third consecutive record close.

Stocks linked to the recovering economy led to many of last week’s gains as US vaccination efforts accelerated. Both the Dow and S&P 500 climbed at least 2% last week. The Nasdaq was up 3.1% over the same period, with some merchants taking in big tech names, with Apple up more than 8% and Amazon and Alphabet up more than 6% each.

The first quarter earnings reporting season kicks off this week with expectations for generally positive news and an upward trend for US equities thanks to a recovering economy. Many of the country’s largest banks, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, will report results this week for the three months ended March 31.

The next week is also packed with Federal Reserve speeches and key economic data, including a long-awaited inflation on Tuesday, when the consumer price index is released.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell kicks off a week of multiple Fed appearances with a Sunday night interview on “60 Minutes.” He also speaks at an event of the Economic Club of Washington on Wednesday.

“A positive fiscal shock, strong tailwinds in the housing market, high savings stocks and inflation of more than 2% by the Fed mark a fundamentally different economic backdrop,” Evercore ISI stock strategist Dennis DeBusschere wrote in an email. “The US data is expected to be strong this week and US vaccinations are increasing. The real numbers are still too negative and going up, supporting the risk-on-factor outperformance.”

Investors will also keep an eye on President Joe Biden’s efforts to come up with a major infrastructure proposal known as the American Jobs Plan. Biden, who along with other Democrats promised significant infrastructure overhaul in the 2020 election, will meet with a bipartisan group of lawmakers Monday to convince Capitol Hill to back the $ 2 trillion package.

Congress returns to Washington this week and is in session for the first time since Biden launched his proposal, which will allocate hundreds of billions of dollars for roads, bridges, airports, broadband, electric vehicles, housing and vocational training.

The president’s plan would also increase the corporate tax rate to 28% and crack down on other foreign tax avoidance strategies.