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U.S. equity futures traded mixed Monday, while the dollar edged lower against its global peers and Treasury yields steadied, as investors looked to consolidate gains from last week’s record rally while eyeing key growth and inflation data later in the week.
The S&P 500 ended last week with a record close of 5,088.80 points, powered in part by ongoing gains in Magnificent 7 tech stocks following a stronger-than-expected fourth quarter earnings report from AI chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) .
The moves higher, which also lifted the Dow to a record and took the Nasdaq to within 1% of its November 2021 peaks, were capped somewhat by a rise in Treasury-bond yields tied to inflation pressure evident in jobs and manufacturing data.
That likely puts a sharp focus on this week’s key economic data release, the January reading of the PCE Price Index, which the Federal Reserve tracks closely in its rate-setting forecasts.
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The PCE report, due Thursday, is likely to show another tick higher in core price pressures, which could cement the Fed’s higher-for-longer rate projections and delay the prospect of any cuts into the summer months.
At present, investors estimate a 52.6% chance that rate cuts will begin in June, with only a 20.8% chance of a reduction at the Fed’s May meeting.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis will also publish its second estimate of fourth-quarter GDP growth, following its first reading of 3.3% from late January.
Benchmark 2-year note yields, the most sensitive to interest-rate changes, were last marked little changed from Friday levels at 4.690% while 10-year notes were pegged at 4.248%.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, was marked 0.18% lower at 103.751.
Wall Street faces a light calendar of corporate earnings this week, highlighted by updates from Salesforce (CRM) , Best Buy (BBY) and HP Enterprises (HPE) starting after the close of trading Wednesday.
With around 448 of the S&P 500 reporting so far, fourth-quarter earnings are forecast to rise 10% from a year earlier to a share-weighted $476.3 billion.
Heading into the start of the trading day, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500, which is up 5.02% for the month and 6.69% for the year, are priced for a 4 point opening bell decline.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which welcomes Amazon (AMZN) at the start of trading while saying goodbye to Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) , are indicating a 25 point opening bell decline.
Contracts linked to the Nasdaq, meanwhile, suggest a 10 point opening bell dip despite to another upswing for Nvidia.
In overseas markets, Europe’s Stoxx 600 was marked 0.21% lower in early Frankfurt trading, while Britain’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.3% in London.
Overnight in Asia, China stocks edged lower following the return from the country’s Lunar New Year celebrations, pulling the regionwide MSCI ex-Japan index 0.36% lower into the close of trading.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 closed at a record for the first time since 1989, rising 0.35% on the session to finish at 39,233.71 points and extending its year-to-date gain to around 18%.
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