By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are set to open higher Monday, buoyed by hope of prompt delivery of new fiscal stimulus during a busy week of corporate earnings and ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting.
At 07:00 AM ET (1100 GMT), S&P 500 Futures traded 24 points, or 0.8%, higher, Nasdaq Futures up 183 points, or 1.7%. The Dow Futures contract rose 166 points, or 0.6%.
Senate Republicans are set to release their proposal for the next coronavirus relief bill, after some disagreements with the White House, and GOP lawmakers, potentially as early as Monday.
Still, this doesn’t leave much negotiating time, with millions of Americans on the verge of losing expanded unemployment benefits. Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, want the enhanced benefits of $600 per week to be extended and are likely to look for more stimulus than the Republicans' $1 trillion plan.
Adding to the positive tone was the news that reported cases and fatalities fell in many states hit hard by the virus, including Florida, Arizona, California and Texas. The daily death toll also dipped under 1,000 on Sunday for the first time in four days.
That said, more than 146,000 Americans have died of Covid-19, nearly a quarter of the global total, and there are nearly 4.2 million confirmed cases in the country,
The Federal Reserve meets this week, with its two-day get together scheduled to conclude on Wednesday, although new moves are unlikely.
The focus at the “FOMC meeting will once again be on forward guidance and how to best underpin the recovery. Any formal decisions will though still be too premature,” said Morten Lund, an analyst at Nordea, in a research note.
Meanwhile, the earnings season continues, with this week set to see around a third of the S&P 500 companies reporting, including 12 Dow components. In total, 128 S&P 500 members have already reported, with earnings down 40% year to date.
Of the major companies, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is due on Wednesday, while tech bellwether Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), along with Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) are set to report on Thursday.
U.S. economic data Monday centers around June’s durable goods, at 8:30 AM ET, which are expected to rise 7.2%, down from a gain of 15.7% in May.
Oil prices were a little lower Monday, with U.S. crude futures trading 0.5% lower at $41.10 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract fell 0.5% to $43.58.
“Market participants appear to be nervous in taking a strong view either way on the market, with plenty of uncertainty still clouding the outlook when it comes to demand,” said analysts at ING, in a research note.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 1.7% to $1,929.50/oz, not far off the record high of $1,937.60 per ounce hit earlier Monday, surpassing a peak touched in September 2011, while EUR/USD traded at 1.1698, up 0.4%.