U.S. stock futures moved higher in early morning trading on Monday as investors prepared for the first trading day of May.
Dow futures rose 171 points. S&P 500 futures gained 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.1%.
Berkshire Hathaway shares rose 1% in early trading after Warren Buffett’s conglomerate reported a 20% surge in operating earnings and continued to buy back large amounts of its own shares. Buffett also revealed to CNBC that when he is no longer in charge, Greg Abel, vice chairman of all non-insurance operations, will succeed him.
Bets on the economic reopening were gaining in early trading. Norwegian Cruise Line holdings and Carnival Corp. were both higher by 1% in the premarket. Caterpillar and Bank of America were also higher.
Some tech shares, such as Tesla and Netflix, were weak in early trading.
Monday marks the first trading day of May. Despite Friday’s weakness in equities, the S&P 500 notched its third straight month of gains in April, adding more than 5% to the index as investors bet on a big economic and profit recovery from the pandemic.
The S&P 500 is now up 11% for the year. The benchmark closed at record levels on Thursday on the heels of blowout earnings results from Apple and Facebook.
The Dow rose about 2.7% last month, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 5.4% in April.
“Investors are gearing up for another busy earnings week capped off with a widely watched jobs report. Given the positive economic and earnings news, the path of least resistance appears higher,” Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Capital told CNBC.
Lowe’s, Estee Lauder and ON Semiconductor report before the bell on Monday.
Manufacturing PMI data for April will be released at 9:45 a.m. ET on Monday, followed by ISM manufacturing at 10 a.m.
April’s jobs report will be released on Friday.
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