Wall Street futures rise on trade hope, earnings kick into high gear
NEW YORK : Wall Street futures edged higher today, buoyed by prospects of trade deals between the US and its key partners, while the earnings season picked up pace with several industrial and tech firms set to report this week.
Futures tracking the S&P 500 rose 16.5 points, or 0.26% at 5.51am, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis climbed 65 points, or 0.28%, hovering near all-time highs hit last week.
Dow e-minis rose 110 points, or 0.25%.
Investors scoured for more trade deals ahead of President Donald Trump's Aug 1 tariff deadline.
He threatened to impose a 30% tariff on imports from Mexico and the EU after weeks of negotiations with the major US trading partners failed to reach a comprehensive deal.
Trump has sent letters to other trading partners, including Canada, Japan and Brazil, setting blanket tariff rates ranging from 20% to 50%.
Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick's remarks yesterday, however, offered some optimism as he expressed confidence over striking a trade deal with the EU.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq reached new heights throughout the last week as investors largely overlooked Trump's shifting tariff rhetoric in favour of stronger economic data and a solid start to the earnings season.
The blue-chip Dow was 1.64% away from its all-time high.
Of the 59 S&P 500 companies that have reported quarterly earnings this season, 81.4% have surpassed Wall Street's earnings expectations, compared with a long-term average of 67.1%, according to LSEG data as of Friday.
All eyes will be on marquee companies such as Alphabet and Tesla later this week, as they kick off earnings for the so-called 'Magnificent Seven' stocks, which could influence the overall trajectory of Wall Street.
Shares of Tesla and Alphabet were up 1.4% and 0.8% in premarket trading, respectively.
Meanwhile, Verizon edged up 0.7% ahead of its results.
The week is light on the economic data front, with only notable indicators being weekly jobless claims figures and the July business activity report on Thursday.
Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Jerome Powell's comments tomorrow will be closely watched for clues on the central bank's future monetary policy stance.
Traders have largely ruled out a July rate cut, and are pricing in an about 60% chance of a September reduction, as per CME Group's FedWatch tool.
Ethereum-linked companies Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Gamesquare Holdings, BTCS and Sharplink Gaming advanced between 4.2% and 10.1% as Ether traded near its highest level this year after Trump signed into law a bill regulating stablecoins in the US.
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