Stimulus hopes lift Wall St futures ahead of manufacturing PMIs

[August 02, 2021]    By Sagarika Jaisinghani

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Monday as a $1 trillion infrastructure bill unveiled by U.S. Senators raised hopes of more fiscal stimulus, while investors turned to manufacturing activity data to gauge the pace of a domestic economic rebound.

A Wall Street sign is pictured outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York, October 28, 2013. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

The Senate on Sunday unveiled the bipartisan plan to invest in roads, bridges, ports, high-speed internet and other infrastructure, with some predicting the chamber could pass this week the largest public works legislation in decades.

Shares of infrastructure-related stocks including Caterpillar Inc inched higher in premarket trading.

Trillions of dollars in monetary and fiscal stimulus have lifted Wall Street's main indexes to record highs following a coronavirus-driven crash last year, and although signs of surging inflation have raised concerns of a hike in interest rates, the Federal Reserve has so far stuck to a dovish policy.

Focus on Monday will be on manufacturing activity data for July, while on Friday, the Labor Department will issue its monthly employment report. Economists expect nonfarm payrolls to have risen 900,000 last month compared with 850,000 in June.

By 6:45 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 142 points, or 0.41%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 22.75 points, or 0.52%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 71.25 points, or 0.48%.

In a sign of global M&A activity picking up again, Square Inc, the payments firm of Twitter Inc co-founder Jack Dorsey, said it would purchase Australian buy now, pay later pioneer Afterpay Ltd for $29 billion.

Afterpay's Australia-listed stock surged 18.8%, while Square's U.S.-listed shares fell 4.2%.

Meanwhile, a rebound in corporate profits and a recent drop in bond yields are helping to moderate U.S. equity valuations, bolstering the case further for owning stocks.

After mixed quarterly reports from technology behemoths last week, in focus this week are earnings reports from companies such as Eli Lilly, CVS Health and General Motors.

Shares of banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Bank of America Corp rose between 0.6% and 1.2%, tracking a slight uptick in the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield.

Graphic: As U.S. stock market marches on, valuations moderate, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/
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(Reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

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