Market Snapshot: China optimism helps boost Dow futures by over 200 points ahead of last trading week of 2022

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U.S. stock futures rose on Tuesday, ahead of the final trading week of 2022, indicating positive market moves when regular trading resumes Tuesday from the three-day Christmas holiday. 

How are stock-index futures trading?
  • S&P 500 futures
    ES00,
    +0.61%

    rose 27 points, or 0.7%, to 3,896

  • Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
    YM00,
    +0.61%

    rose 215 points, or 0.6%, to 33,590

  • Nasdaq-100 futures
    NQ00,
    +0.52%

    rose 67.75 points, or 0.6%, to 11,144

On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average 
DJIA,
+0.53%

rose 176.44 points, or 0.5%, to close at 33,203.93. The S&P 500 
SPX,
+0.59%

 gained 22.43 points, or 0.6%, finishing at 3,844.82, for a weekly decline of 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite 
COMP,
+0.45%

 closed at 10,497.86, up 6.85 points, or 0.4%. For the week, the Nasdaq fell 1.9%.

Last week, the Dow gained nearly 1%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell for a third straight week.

See more: What to expect for the stock market in 2023 after the biggest decline since the financial crisis

What’s driving markets?

Friday marked the start of the so-called Santa Claus rally period — the final five trading days of the calendar year and the first two trading days of the new year. That stretch has, on average, produced gains for stocks, but failure to do so is often read as a negative indicator.

Read more: How a Santa Claus rally, or lack thereof, sets the stage for the stock market in first quarter

Investors could be drawing some optimism from news that China will drop quarantine requirements for incoming travelers starting in January. Those travelers will still need to present a negative COVID test within 48 hours of travel, but will no longer need to routinely isolate five days in a hotel, followed by five days at home.

“This is certainly something that traders and investors have been hoping for a long period of time as China remained very strict with its zero-covid policy throughout this year,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade, in a note to clients.

“Nonetheless,  recession remains a major among investors and traders, and this is likely to keep a cap on any corrective moves in the markets. It is widely anticipated that trading volume is expected to remain on the low side due to a short holiday week,” he said.

Hopes for more demand from China helped give oil prices a boost. Energy was also gaining as extreme cold weather in Texas caused the shutdown of several oil refineries. Oil prices rose
CL.1,
+0.90%

53 cents to nearly $80 a barrel.

Airlines may be in focus as the U.S. tries to recover from a deadly winter storm that is expected to continue dumping snow on hard-hit Buffalo, New York. Shares of Southwest Airlines
LUV,
+1.78%

were down over 2% in premarket trading, as the airline has been forced to cancel 2,800 flights — more than its rivals — with more cancellations expected this week due to weather.

The U.S. Dollar Index
DXY,
-0.30%
,
which measures the greenback against a basket of major rivals, slipped 0.2%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
3.745%

was steady at 3.745%.