Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., April 25, 2024.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
U.S. stock futures flickered near the flatline Monday evening after the Dow Jones Industrial Average wrapped its fourth positive day in a row.
Dow futures inched higher by just 8 points, or 0.02%. S&P 500 futures ticked up 0.01%, while Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 0.03%.
During Monday’s main trading session, the Dow rose nearly 0.5%, or 176.59 points. The S&P 500 gained 1%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced roughly 1.2%; both indexes closed higher for a third consecutive session.
Investors carried over their bullish market sentiment from Friday, when the latest nonfarm payrolls data showed that job growth came in below expectations in April and unemployment ticked higher. The results alleviated concerns that the economy was too hot and raised optimism around rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.
To be sure, other conflicting economic data — such as an uptick in the employment cost index — means that there are still questions surrounding the actual trajectory of inflation, according to Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist, wealth management with U.S. Bank.
“I think the market is looking for a bit of a tiebreaker in terms of what’s happening with inflation,” said Haworth.
He added that he has become “a little more constructive” on his outlook due to ongoing economic strength. “Inflation is remaining persistent but not not accelerating to a problematic level. So we think there’s room to own risk assets here,” Haworth added.
Tuesday will be relatively quiet on the economic front, with just consumer credit data from March scheduled for release in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, Wall Street will be looking toward Disney‘s quarterly earnings report Tuesday morning. Swiss bank UBS, oil giant BP and Johnson & Johnson spinoff Kenvue are also scheduled to announce their results.
