Markets poised to start the week higher
U.S. stock futures were pointing to a slightly positive open on Monday, with nearly a third of the S&P 500 companies scheduled to release their quarterly financial reports this week.
Wall Street fell sharply at the end of last week, with the S&P 500 falling 3.6%, its worst session since June 2020.
Uber (NYSE: UBER), Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT), Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB), CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), and Marriott (NASDAQ: MAR) are among the major companies expected to report later in the week.
As of 5:05 a.m. ET, the blue-chip Dow futures were up 68 points, or 0.21% to 32,950. S&P 500 futures climbed 6.75 points, or 0.16% to 4,134.25 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures gained 37 points, or 0.29% to 12,889.
Fed meeting and jobs report also in focus
Aside from quarterly earnings, traders are also awaiting the U.S. Federal Reserve to kick off its two-day monetary policy meeting.
Economists widely except Fed policymakers to hike interest rates by 50 bps to a target range of 0.75% to 1% at the conclusion of the meeting on Wednesday afternoon. That would mark the first rate increase of more than 25 bps since 2000.
Another focal point this week will be the much-awaited April nonfarm payrolls report, which will be released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday morning.
Analysts expect the American economy to have added 375,000 jobs last month, down from the 431,000 jobs added in March. The rate of unemployment is likely to remain steady at 3.6%.
Crude futures slide on China PMI data
Meanwhile, crude futures fell early Monday following a closely watched report that showed China’s manufacturing activity slowed in April, sparking concerns about the global growth outlook.
The country’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI), a key measure of manufacturing activity, came in at 47.4 amid Covid-19 lockdowns.
The reading, which was released during the weekend, is the lowest level since February 2020 and was below Reuters’ forecast of 48.
As of 5:05 a.m. ET, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell $2.97, or 2.84% to $101.72 a barrel. Global Brent crude futures gave away $2.75, or 2.57% to $104.39 a barrel.
