U.S. stock futures edged higher on Tuesday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday posted its best day since March.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 35 points. S&P 500 futures inched up 0.1%. Nasdaq-100 were 0.3% higher.
During the regular session on Monday, the Dow rose 586.89 points, or 1.76%, for its best day since March 5. The S&P 500 ended the day up 1.4% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.79%.
The indexes recouped some of last week’s steep losses when the Federal Reserve’s updated projections on inflation and interest rate hikes sparked a sell-off. Commodity stocks like Devon Energy and Occidental Petroleum led the market comeback Monday after being hit hard last week. Norwegian Cruise Line and Boeing stocks climbed more than 3% as the economy continues to reopen.
“Stocks staged a strong rebound on Monday, although all the S&P did was recoup its decline from Friday,” according to Vital Knowledge’s Adam Crisafulli. “Cyclical stocks may have rebounded on Monday, but they are still in a downtrend and investors should use rallies to book profits.”
After Monday’s comeback, the S&P 500 is back within striking distance of a record, trading just 0.8% below its all-time high.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will testify before the House of Representatives Tuesday on the central bank’s response to the pandemic. His remarks, which were released ahead of the hearing Monday evening, are likely to support the notion that the Fed is ready to soon start discussing removing some of its unprecedented stimulus measures enacted during the pandemic.
“Since we last met, the economy has shown sustained improvement,” Powell will say Tuesday, according to the Fed release. “Widespread vaccinations have joined unprecedented monetary and fiscal policy actions in providing strong support to the recovery. Indicators of economic activity and employment have continued to strengthen, and real GDP this year appears to be on track to post its fastest rate of increase in decades.”
“Inflation has increased notably in recent months,” Powell will say. But the Fed chief will note that most of those are a temporary effect and that inflation should settle back to 2% over the long term.
Powell’s testimony begins at 2 p.m. ET.
Alphabet shares traded slightly lower in premarket trading after the European Commission opened a probe into Google’s advertising unit.
There were not many breakout movers in premarket trading so far Tuesday. Caterpillar and Ford were slightly higher in early trading. Tesla and Pfizer were lower.
On Tuesday morning the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia will release its non-manufacturing business data, the National Association of Realtors will publish existing home sales data for May and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond will release the results of its monthly Survey of Manufacturing Activity.
