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U.S. stock futures were struggling for traction on Monday as investors looked ahead to a busy week on the economic front, with consumer prices and the last Federal Reserve meeting of the year ahead.
How are stock-index futures trading
-
S&P 500 futures
ES00,
-0.09%
slipped 0.7 point to 4606.75 -
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
YM00,
-0.04%
were flat at 36645 -
Nasdaq 100 futures
NQ00,
-0.19%
fell 17 points, or 0.1%, to 16292
On Friday, the Dow industrials
DJIA
rose 130.49 points, or 0.4%, to close at 36,247.87, its highest close since Jan. 12, 2022. The S&P 500
SPX
rose 0.4% to finish at 4,604.37, its best close since March 29, 2022, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP
climbed 0.4% to 14,403. 97, the highest close since April 4, 2022.
All three major indexes rose a sixth straight week as well.
What’s driving markets
After a stronger-than-expected jobs report helped propel stocks higher on Friday, investors will now turn their attention to the last Fed meeting of the year and important inflation data ahead of that.
Economists expect November consumer prices, due Tuesday, will show soft headline inflation, but a firm core reading, which strips out food and energy prices. Producer prices are due on Wednesday with retail sales on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues will announce the outcome of the two-day meeting, with the central bank expected to hold its key benchmark interest rate steady in a range of 5.25% to 5.5%.
Friday’s strong jobs data could have some bearing on what Powell has to say this week, said Peter Iosif, senior research analyst at Noteris.
“Despite the possibility of a seasonal effect, overall, the data tend to highlight once again the resilience and tightness of the U.S. employment market. The release may harden the Fed’s hawkish stance and contradict the market’s expectations for an early rate cut,” said Iosif.
The European Central Bank and Bank of England will each announce policy decisions on Thursday. A Bank of Japan decision will come next week.
The yen was sinking against the dollar
USDJPY,
on Monday after Bloomberg reported, cited sources, that central bank officials were in no rush to end a decades-long negative interest rate policy soon. The yen rallied last week on rising expectations that officials were leaning in that direction.
Gold prices
GC00,
were down 0.2% at $2,009.30 an ounce and crude futures
CL00,
were modestly lower.
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