NEW YORK, 1st July, 2024 (WAM) -- U.S. stock index futures gained on Monday ahead of manufacturing PMI data, with focus also on labour market numbers later in the week for cues on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy path.
PMI, the Purchasing Managers' Index, is a measure of the prevailing direction of economic trends in manufacturing.
Reuters reported that AI chip firm Nvidia shed 1.0 percent in premarket trading, after choppy trade last week, along with some weakness in other semiconductor stocks. Megacaps such as Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon.com were up between 0.4 percent and 0.9 percent.
Focus on upcoming data
Focus will be on ISM and S&P Global manufacturing PMIs later in the day. This follows Friday's personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed's preferred measure of inflation, which was unchanged in May and underscored the narrative of slowing inflation and resilient economic growth.
Also scheduled for the week are JOLTS job openings data on Tuesday, and ADP employment, factory orders, ISM services PMI data and minutes of the Fed's latest policy meeting on Wednesday.
Non-farm payrolls data is due on Thursday, when trading will be shut for equities on account of U.S. Independence Day.
Traders have largely stuck to their bets of around two interest rate cuts this year, starting from September, according to LSEG FedWatch.
Comments from New York Fed President John Williams are also due later on Monday.
Wall Street's upward trajectory
The Nasdaq and the benchmark S&P 500 notched their third straight quarterly gains on Friday, with the tech-heavy index doing so for the first time in three years.
As the top few heavily weighted stocks have largely supported Wall Street's upward trajectory on optimism around artificial intelligence and interest rate cuts, the blue-chip Dow has lagged its peers with a quarterly decline.
Owing to the lack of broad-based gains, market participants have highlighted concerns over the sustenance of such a skewed rally, calling for the need of greater diversification in investor holdings.
At 07.25 ET (15.25 UAE), Dow e-minis were up 93 points, or 0.24 percent, S&P 500 e-minis were up 12.5 points, or 0.23 percent, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 45.75 points, or 0.23 percent.
Spirit AeroSystems gained 4.7 percent following Boeing's deal to buy back the fuselage supplier for US$4.7 billion in stock. Boeing's shares slipped 0.4 percent.
Chewy's shares soared 15.3 percent after stock influencer Keith Gill, also known as "Roaring Kitty", disclosed a 6.6 percent stake in the pet products retailer.
Pet-focused company Petco Health and Wellness gained 1.9 percent, while shares of videogame retailer GameStop , another Gill stock favourite, fell 6.6 percent.
U.S.-listed shares of Li Auto rose 3.5 percent after the Chinese EV maker's vehicle deliveries rose 46.7 percent year-on-year in June.
Cryptocurrency-related stocks Coinbase Global, Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital and MicroStrategy gained between 1.8 percent and 1.9 percent after bitcoin prices jumped as much as 3 percent to a one-week high.