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three main U.S. indexes ended last week higher and appear set to
gain this month as signs of cooling inflation and a resilient
economy have cemented investor bets on a soft landing for the
country.
Upbeat quarterly earnings from megacap growth companies
including Alphabet, Meta Platforms as well as chipmakers Intel
and Lam Research have also boosted investor sentiment.
Blue-chip index Dow this month logged its longest winning streak
in nearly four-decades underpinned by gains in sectors including
healthcare, financials and energy that had underperformed during
the first half of the year.
"Markets are growing increasingly confident that we are
approaching the end of the current rate-hike cycle and that a
soft landing can be delivered," said Joshua Warner, market
analyst at City Index.
"However, the future path of interest rates and the outlook for
earnings both remain at the behest of macroeconomic conditions
and data will remain key."
Investors will parse remarks by Chicago Fed President Austan
Goolsbee, a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee,
due later in the day.
Citigroup raised its 2023-end and mid-2024 S&P 500 targets to
4,600 and 5,000, respectively, to reflect a higher possibility
of a soft landing. The benchmark index closed at 4,582 on
Friday.
Investors await quarterly reports from Apple, Amazon.com and AMD
later this week, while July ISM Manufacturing reading and three
sets of employment data, including July's non-farm payrolls are
also in focus.
At 5:45 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 18 points, or 0.05%, S&P
500 e-minis were up 1.25 points, or 0.03%, and Nasdaq 100
e-minis were down 10.25 points, or 0.06%.
Among early movers, chipmaker ON Semiconductor and financial
services provider SoFi Technologies added 2.7% and 6.6%,
respectively, ahead of their second-quarter results.
Johnson & Johnson shed 1.1% after a U.S. judge shot down the
drugmaker's second attempt to resolve tens of thousands of
lawsuits over its talc products.
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru)
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