Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stock futures held steady in overnight trading Sunday after a rush of broad based late buying pushed the S&P 500 to a record high in the final minutes of the previous session.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped just 25 points. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were both little changed.
On Friday, all three major benchmarks rallied to their session highs into the close with the blue-chip Dow closing about 450 points higher. The S&P 500 eventually climbed 1.7% to hit a record closing high. The Nasdaq Composite wiped out a 0.8% loss and ended Friday 1.2% higher.
Traders are bracing for heightened volatility during this holiday-shortened week with quarter-end rebalancing among pension funds and other big investors. The recent swift advance in bond yields could set up money managers for big adjustments in their portfolio.
The Dow and the S&P 500 have risen 6.9% and 4.3%, respectively, so far in March. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, however, has dipped 0.4% this month as some investors jumped high-flying technology names amid rising yields.
Investors are awaiting updates from President Joe Biden about his infrastructure plan which could cost north of $3 trillion. The president is expected to unveil his plan when he travels to Pittsburgh on Wednesday. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday Biden plans to roll out two packages in the coming months, the first covering infrastructure and the second covering health and family care.
“The market isn’t placing very high odds on this infrastructure/tax blueprint coming to fruition and while Biden probably won’t get everything he’s asking for, Congressional Democrats and the White House are VERY intent on passing some substantial bills in the coming months,” Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge, said in a note.
The stock market is closed for the Good Friday holiday, but the March jobs report is still slated for release that morning. Economists expect 630,000 jobs were added in March, and the unemployment rate fell to 6% from 6.2%, according to Dow Jones.
