Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 10, 2025 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Stock futures rose on Monday evening, as investors braced themselves for the first of two inflation readings due this week.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 65 points, or about 0.2%. S&P 500 futures advanced 0.2%, while Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.3%.
The action comes after the Nasdaq Composite slid for the fourth consecutive day in the regular session. Traders rotated out of Big Tech names like Nvidia, which slid nearly 2%, and snapped up stocks in the energy, health care and materials sectors. The 30-stock Dow rose almost 0.9% as traders bought Chevron and UnitedHealth.
Looking to Tuesday, the producer price index, which measures wholesale inflation, is set for release at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Dow Jones predict that headline PPI grew 0.4%, while the core figure, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.3%.
The December PPI measure — and the consumer price index report due Wednesday — will be market catalysts as investors grapple with last week’s blowout jobs report. The upcoming inflation reports will inform the Federal Reserve’s next move on interest rate policy.
“On a short-term basis, the market has shifted back to a good-news-is-bad-news backdrop,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial. “However, it is important to remember that, in the long term, good economic news is usually good for equity markets as it implies better-than-expected growth, upside to potential earnings and reduced recession risk.”
Fed funds futures trading suggests a near-certainty that the Fed will hold steady on interest rates at the conclusion of its two-day meeting later this month. Markets pricing also suggests an 80% chance of rates staying at their current target range of 4.25%-4.5% in March, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
On the earnings front, banking behemoths will kick off fourth-quarter earnings season this week, with JPMorgan Chase, CItigroup, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo posting results on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley and Bank of America are slated to report on Thursday.
