U.S. stock futures were trading in a tight range during Sunday’s evening deals, after major benchmark averages capped a mixed a week amid ongoing banking turmoil while major tech companies delivered better than expected quarterly earnings results.
By 7:10pm ET (11:10pm GMT) Dow Jones Futures, S&P 500 Futures, Nasdaq 100 Futures were trading within a range of 0.1%.
In the week ahead, investors will be looking towards key consumer, producer, import and export price indexes as well as preliminary Michigan sentiment and expectation readings, Investing.com cited.
Speeches from the Fed’s Jefferson, Waller and the FOMC’s Bowman will also be closely watched.
Earnings season is set to continue this week with companies including Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) B (NYSE:BRKb), PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL), Airbnb Inc (NASDAQ:ABNB), Toyota Motor Corporation ADR (NYSE:TM), Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) and Tapestry Inc (NYSE:TPR) scheduled to deliver results.
During Friday’s session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 546.6 points or 1.7% to 33,674.4, the S&P 500 gained 75 points or 1.9% to 4,136.3 and the NASDAQ Composite added 269 points or 2.3% to 12,235.4. For the week, the Dow shed 1.3% the S&P 500 lost 0.7% while the NASDAQ gained 0.2%.
On the bond markets, United States 10-Year rates were at 3.441%.
A positive reaction to quarterly results from tech giant Apple (AAPL) may also generate early buying interest.
Shares of Apple are jumping by 2.9 percent in pre-market trading after the company reported fiscal second quarter results that beat analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines.
The futures remained positive following the release of the Labor Department’s closely watched monthly jobs report for April.
While the report showed job growth far exceeded economist estimates in the month of April, the jump in employment followed notable downward revision to the two previous months.
RTTNews cited the Labour Department said non-farm payroll employment shot up by 253,000 jobs in April compared to economist estimates for an increase of about 179,000 jobs.
However, the job growth in February and March was downwardly revised to 248,000 jobs and 165,000 jobs, respectively, reflecting a combined downward revision of 149,000 jobs.
The report also said the unemployment rate edged down to 3.4 percent in April from 3.5 percent in March. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.
Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 240,000 from the 230,000 originally reported for the previous week.
A separate report released by the Commerce Department said the U.S. trade deficit shrank to $64.2 billion in March from a revised $70.6 billion in February.
The Labour Department also released another report showing U.S. labor productivity tumbled by much more than expected in the first quarter of 2023, while unit labour costs spiked more than expected.
Airline stocks turned in some of the market’s worst performances on the day, resulting in a 4.6 percent nosedive by the NYSE Arca Airline Index.
Substantial weakness was also visible among banking stocks, as reflected by the 3.8 percent plunge by the KBW Bank Index. The index tumbled to its lowest closing level in over two years.
Steel stocks also showed a significant move to the downside amid concerns about demand, dragging the NYSE Arca Steel Index down by 3.4 percent to a four-month closing low.
Brokerage, oil and chemical stocks also saw considerable weakness on the day, while gold stocks moved sharply higher along with the price of the precious metal.
U.S. Economic Reports
Job growth in the U.S. far exceeded economist estimates in the month of April, the Labor Department revealed in a report on Friday, although the jump in employment followed notable downward revision to the two previous months.
The Labour Department said non-farm payroll employment shot up by 253,000 jobs in April compared to economist estimates for an increase of about 179,000 jobs.
However, the job growth in February and March was downwardly revised to 248,000 jobs and 165,000 jobs, respectively, reflecting a combined downward revision of 149,000 jobs.
The report also said the unemployment rate edged down to 3.4 percent in April from 3.5 percent in March. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.
At 1 pm ET, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard is due to participate in a fireside chat on the U.S. economy and monetary policy before an Economic Club of Minnesota luncheon.
Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook is also scheduled to give a commencement address before the 2023 Spring Convocation of Michigan State University at 1 pm ET.
At 3 pm ET, the Federal Reserve is due to release its report on consumer credit in the month of March. Consumer credit is expected to increase by $16.5 billion.
