Market Snapshot: Stock futures point higher, but travel stocks pressured after weekend of COVID holiday disruptions

How are stock-index futures trading?

• S&P 500 futures
  ES00,
  +0.30%
  rose 0.1% to 4,721

• Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
  YM00,
  +0.16%
  were flat at 35,825

• Nasdaq-100 futures
  NQ00,
  +0.42%
  climbed 0.2% to 16,334

Ahead of the long holiday weekend, Thursday’s session saw the S&P 500 rise 0.6% to 4,725.79, a new closing record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average 
DJIA,
+0.55%
gained 196.67 points, or 0.6%, to end at 35,950.56 and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+0.85%
climbed 0.9% to 15,653. For the week, the Dow rose 1.7%, the S&P 500 gained 2.3% and Nasdaq added 3.2%.

What’s driving the stock market?

Optimism that the latest wave of COVID-19 won’t disrupt the economy pushed stocks higher last week. That’s even as coronavirus upended Christmas travel, and White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci warned against complacency over the omicron variant, which he said could end up swamping hospitals even if many infections appear mild.

Thousands of flights were canceled across the globe over the weekend as surging COVID-19 infections triggered quarantines for airline staff. Shares of American Airlines
AAL,
,
Delta Air Lines
DAL,
+0.43%
and United Airlines
UAL,
+0.67%
were down over 2% in premarket trading, with cruise operator Carnival
CCL,
-0.24%
down nearly 3%.

Read: Caribbean cruise denied entry by ports due to COVID-19 outbreak

While travel was a mess, the retail side of the economy appeared to be holding up, with Mastercard Spending Pulse reporting that holiday sales rose 8.5% against a year earlier, the biggest annual gain in 17 years.

The week ahead may see lower volumes than normal, as investors take an extended break. Many will be watching out for the start of the so-called Santa Claus rally, a seasonally bullish period in the last five trading sessions of a year and the first two in the new year.

Read: The stock market hasn’t been this stomach-churning in December since 2018. Here’s the setup for the year’s final week.

“The focus among investors and traders continues to remain on three important factors. Firstly, the economic data — traders would like to see more strength in the economic numbers, then you have the ongoing omicron COVID infection ratio — this is increasing for the last number of weeks, and finally the hawkish monetary policy stance among central bankers,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade.

Aslam said there are concerns that post-New Year’s Eve will see more spikes in infections, or governments clamping down ahead of time.

“The fact is that no one wants to see another total lockdown as they have an adverse influence on the economy. The world is still suffering from supply bottleneck shortages due to COVID restrictions introduced last year,” he said, in a note to clients.

How are other assets trading?

• The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
  TMUBMUSD10Y,
  1.484%
   slipped slightly to 1.482%. Yields and debt prices move opposite each other.

• The ICE U.S. Dollar Index 
  DXY,
  +0.19%,
   a measure of the currency against a basket of six major rivals, was 0.2% higher.

• Oil futures fell, with the U.S. benchmark 
  CL00,
  -1.40%
  down 1.2% to $72.89 a barrel, while gold futures 
  GC00,
  -0.22%
  fell 0.3% to $1,807 an ounce.

• Bitcoin BTCUSD, 0.06% gained 0.1% to $50,817.

• The Stoxx Europe 600 index 
  SXXP,
  +0.40%
  was up 0.2%, while London markets were closed.

• The Shanghai Composite 
  SHCOMP,
  -0.06%
   was flat, while the Hang Seng Index 
  HSI,
  +0.13%
   was closed and Japan’s Nikkei 225 
  NIK,
  -0.37%
  fell 0.3%.