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Hopes that the Fed will soon end its aggressive monetary policy
tightening have helped the main U.S. equity benchmarks stabilize
in April after a selloff last month that was triggered by the
collapse of two U.S. mid-sized lenders.
A strong labor market report on Friday, however, lifted bets
that the U.S. central bank will increase rates by 25 basis
points in May, with money market traders pricing in a nearly 70%
chance of such a move, according to CME Group's Fedwatch tool.
All eyes will be on the inflation data on Wednesday, with
economists forecasting consumer prices to grow 5.2% in March
after a 6.0% rise in February. However, core prices are seen
rising 5.6%, a slightly faster pace compared with the 5.5%
growth in February.
Big U.S. banks Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells
Fargo & Co will kick off the first-quarter earnings season.
Investors will be scrutinizing the earnings reports for clues on
the overall health of the banking sector.
Analysts expect first-quarter profits at S&P 500 companies to
fall 5.2% year-on-year, a stark reversal from the 1.4% annual
growth expected at the beginning of the year, according to
Refinitiv data.
At 5:56 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 51 points, or 0.15%, S&P
500 e-minis were up 10.75 points, or 0.26%, and Nasdaq 100
e-minis were up 44.75 points, or 0.34%.
Shares of crypto-related companies such as Coinbase Global Inc,
Riot Platforms Inc and Marathon Digital Holdings Inc climbed
between 3.0% and 4.2% as bitcoin breached the key $30,000 level
for the first time in 10 months.
National CineMedia Inc soared 91.7% after AMC Entertainment
Holdings Inc disclosed a stake in the theater-focused
advertising company.
U.S.-listed shares of Hexo Corp plunged 22.0% after Tilray
Brands Inc said it would buy the Canadian cannabis company for
$56 million. Tilray's shares also fell 5.8%.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak
Dasgupta)
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