(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Monday as investors awaited earnings from more megacap companies and a key employment report later this week.
All three main U.S. indexes ended last week higher and appear set to gain this month as signs of cooling inflation and a resilient economy have cemented investor bets on a soft landing for the country.
Upbeat quarterly earnings from megacap growth companies including Alphabet, Meta Platforms as well as chipmakers Intel and Lam Research have also boosted investor sentiment.
Blue-chip index Dow this month logged its longest winning streak in nearly four-decades underpinned by gains in sectors including healthcare, financials and energy that had underperformed during the first half of the year.
“Markets are growing increasingly confident that we are approaching the end of the current rate-hike cycle and that a soft landing can be delivered,” said Joshua Warner, market analyst at City Index.
“However, the future path of interest rates and the outlook for earnings both remain at the behest of macroeconomic conditions and data will remain key.”
Investors will parse remarks by Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, due later in the day.
Citigroup raised its 2023-end and mid-2024 S&P 500 targets to 4,600 and 5,000, respectively, to reflect a higher possibility of a soft landing. The benchmark index closed at 4,582 on Friday.
Investors await quarterly reports from Apple, Amazon.com and AMD later this week, while July ISM Manufacturing reading and three sets of employment data, including July’s non-farm payrolls are also in focus.
At 5:45 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 18 points, or 0.05%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 1.25 points, or 0.03%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 10.25 points, or 0.06%.
Among early movers, chipmaker ON Semiconductor and financial services provider SoFi Technologies added 2.7% and 6.6%, respectively, ahead of their second-quarter results.
Johnson & Johnson shed 1.1% after a U.S. judge shot down the drugmaker’s second attempt to resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits over its talc products.
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru)
