Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), July 21, 2021.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
U.S. stock futures rose in early morning trading on Monday as investors geared up for the first trading day of August.
Dow futures rose 218 points. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures both also traded in positive territory.
The major averages managed to notch their sixth month of gains in July, although volatility increased amid concerns about the economic recovery in the face of the spreading delta Covid variant. The Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average added about 1.2% and 1.3%, respectively, in July, while the broad S&P 500 gained close to 2.3% last month.
Concerns about inflation also plagued the market, however a key inflation indicator showed lesser-than-feared price pressures on Friday. The core personal consumption expenditures price index rose 3.5% in June year-over-year. It marked a sharp acceleration in inflation, but came in slightly below a Dow Jones forecast of a 3.6% jump.
Also on Friday, U.S. second-quarter gross domestic product accelerated 6.5% on an annualized basis, considerably less than the 8.4% rate of growth expected by Dow Jones.
On the earnings front, Amazon sank nearly 7.6% Friday after the tech giant reported its first quarterly revenue miss in three years and gave weaker guidance.
The first trading day of August comes in the heat of earnings season. Lyft, Amgen, Uber, CVS Health, General Motors, Roku and Square all report quarterly results this week.
Of the 59% of S&P 500 companies that have reported for the second quarter, 88% have beaten consensus earnings expectations, according to FactSet.
