U.S. stock futures were trading in a mixed fashion on Sunday night, with markets trading higher during Friday’s trade as weakening Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE) prices boosted investor sentiment.
By 6:45pm ET (10:45pm GMT) Dow Jones Futures were down 0.1% while S&P 500 Futures and Nasdaq 100 Futures were flat.
Ahead in the week, market participants will be monitoring ISM and Markit manufacturing PMIs, factory orders, FOMC meeting minutes, ADP employment change, import and export data, ISM and Markit services PMIs, jobless claims, average hourly earnings and nonfarm payrolls, as well as speeches from FOMC member Williams and the Fed’s Logan.
The market will also close at 1:00pm ET on Monday ahead of the Fourth of July holiday and will remain closed until Wednesday, Investing.com cited.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 285.2 points or 0.8% to 34,407.6, the S&P 500 gained 53.9 points or 1.2% to 4,450.4 and the NASDAQ Composite added 196.6 points or 1.5% to 13,787.9. For the week, the Dow gained 2%, S&P 500 popped 2.4% and the NASDAQ surged 2.3%.
On the bond markets, United States 10-Year rates were at 3.838%.
Meanwhile, traders were also reacting to another batch of largely upbeat U.S. economic data, which further eased recession worries but also renewed concerns about the outlook for interest rates
The Labor Department released a report showing an unexpected pullback by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended June 24th.
The report said initial jobless claims fell to 239,000, a decrease of 26,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 265,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 270,000 from the 264,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The upwardly revised figure for the previous week reflected the most jobless claims since the week ended October 23, 2021.
A separate report released by the Commerce Department showed the U.S. economy grew by much more than previously estimated in the first quarter of 2023.
The Commerce Department said gross domestic product jumped by 2.0 percent in the first quarter compared to the previously estimated 1.3 percent increase. Economists had expected the pace of GDP growth to be unrevised, RTTNews reported.
Oil service stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the session, driving the Philadelphia Oil Service Index up by 2.0 percent to its best closing level in nearly two months. The strength in the oil service sector came amid a continued increase by the price of crude oil.
Significant strength was also visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 1.9 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. The index also reached a two-month closing high.
Banking stocks also turned in a strong performance following the release of the stress test results, moving notably higher along with networking, brokerage and natural gas stocks.
