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U.S. stock futures were little changed early Monday, holding levels that would secure a fifth consecutive month of gains amid optimism over corporate earnings.
How are stock-index futures trading
-
S&P 500 futures
ES00,
+0.04%
dipped 1 point, or 0%, to 4605 -
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
YM00,
+0.08%
rose 2 points, or 0%, to 35594 -
Nasdaq 100 futures
NQ00,
-0.06%
eased 12 points, or 0.1%, to 15385
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
rose 177 points, or 0.5%, to 35459, the S&P 500
SPX,
increased 45 points, or 0.99%, to 4582, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
gained 267 points, or 1.9%, to 14317.
What’s driving markets
A calm start to the week leaves U.S. stocks eyeing a fifth consecutive month of gains.
The S&P 500 is up 15.4% over that period, and has advanced 19.3% for the year to date, after further indications of cooling inflation bolstered hopes the U.S. economy can avoid a sharp contraction as the end of Federal Reserve monetary tightening approaches.
Also supporting sentiment is a generally well-received second-quarter earnings season. With just over half of S&P 500 companies having reported results, 80% of them delivered a positive earnings per share surprise and 64% a positive revenue
surprise, according to FactSet.
Earnings due on Monday include SoFi Technologies
SOFI,
ON Semiconductor
ON,
and CNA Financial
CNA,
Scott Chronert, equity strategist at Citi, said he was increasing his S&P 500 year-end target for 2023 and 2024 to 4,600 and 5,000 respectively.
“The near-term hurdles we envisioned headed into Q3 are now behind. The new targets reflect increased probability of a soft landing in our scenario approach. Related, stronger earnings growth headed into ’24 is an important call out. An index P/E above our fair value range can be attributed to the mega cap growth cohort. The implication is that we look to buy pullbacks to position for an earnings growth acceleration call in ’24,” Chronert summarized in a note to clients.
U.S. economic updates set for release on Monday include the Chicago business barometer for July, released at 8:30 a.m., and the Fed senior loan officer survey for the second quarter, due at 2 p.m. Both times Eastern.
