Investing.com– U.S. stock index futures rose Monday, as Wall Street attempted a recovery after clocking two straight weeks of steep losses on a technology rout and waning expectations of interest rate cuts.
At 06:25 ET (10:25 GMT), rose 185 points, or 0.5%, rose 29 points, or 0.6%, while rose 125 points, or 0.7%.
The and the slid 3.5% and 6.1%, respectively, last week, hit by weakness in the tech sector as sticky inflation resulted in expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts being delayed to later in the year. The outperformed last week, ending largely flat.
Big tech earnings eyed
Focus now turns to upcoming quarterly earnings from some of Wall Street’s biggest tech titans, set to start this week.
Four of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks are set to report earnings this week, with Tesla (NASDAQ:) on Tuesday, Facebook-owner Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:) on Wednesday, followed by Microsoft (NASDAQ:) and Google-owner Alphabet (NASDAQ:) on Thursday.
The tech sector was nursing steep losses over the past week, especially as middling earnings from chipmaking bellwethers ASML (AS:) and TSMC (NYSE:) spurred concerns that artificial intelligence will only provide a limited boost to the sector.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:) in particular was the worst-hit among its peers, plummeting 10% on Friday to a near two-monht low.
PMIs, PCE inflation awaited as rate cut bets wane
Markets were also awaiting a string of readings this week for more cues on the U.S. economy, especially amid waning expectations for a June rate cut by the .
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data for April is due later in the week, and will provide more cues on U.S. business activity.
More closely watched will be data – the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge – which is due later in the week. The reading is also expected to show that inflation remained sticky in March.
PMIs, PCE inflation awaited as rate cut bets wane
Crude prices fell Friday, extending the prior week’s losses amid growing hopes that the Iran-Israel conflict will not escalate further, reducing the chances of major disruptions to supplies from this oil-rich region.
By 06:25 ET, the U.S. crude futures traded 0.6% lower at $81.76 a barrel, while the Brent contract dropped 0.6% to $86.80 per barrel.
Both benchmarks fell around 3% last week, posting their biggest weekly loss since February, after Iran downplayed Israel’s retaliatory drone strike on its soil, indicating that an escalation of hostilities in the Middle East might be avoided.
Rising U.S. crude inventories are also pressuring the market, while reports emerged on Friday that the International Monetary Fund expects OPEC+ to begin increasing oil output from July.
OPEC+ members, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, last month agreed to extend voluntary output cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day until the end of June.
(Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)
Jessica Roberts is a seasoned business writer who deciphers the intricacies of the corporate world. With a focus on finance and entrepreneurship, she provides readers with valuable insights into market trends, startup innovations, and economic developments.
