Investing.com - Wall Street stock futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Monday as investors revved up their motors for a busy week that will include inflation figures stateside as well as no less than monetary policy announcements from four central banks including the Federal Reserve (Fed).
The blue-chip Dow futures fell 33 points, or 0.16%, by 7:03AM ET (11:03GMT), the S&P 500 futures lost 4 points, or 0.16%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 8 points, or 0.14%.
Last Friday’s solid jobs report cemented market expectations that the Fed will hike rates when it announces its policy decision on Wednesday.
Markets were pricing in the chance of an increase at around 91%, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
“Friday’s jobs report reinforced the narrative, but the key now will be what the statement and press conference say,” experts from IG said.
“If the Fed statement, forecasts and press conference fail to convince the market that a follow-up hike in June ought not to be ruled out, the dollar would likely sell-off, as stale longs move to the sidelines,” added Brown Brothers Harriman currency strategist Marc Chandler.
Indeed, markets seemed to be taking some risk off investments in the greenback on Monday, as it hovered near a two-week low.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.27% at 101.11 by 7:05AM ET (11:05GMT).
At the same time, gold recovered on Monday after previously settling lower for the ninth session in a row on Friday, hitting its weakest since January 31 at $1,194.50 after solid U.S. employment data reinforced the expectations of a Fed rate hike this week.
Comex gold futures rose $6.45, or around 0.54%, to $1,207.85 a troy ounce by 7:05AM ET (11:05GMT).
In company news, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) was reported to have agreed to buy Mobileye (NYSE:MBLY), an Israeli tech firm dedicated to collision-avoidance car sensor systems, for between $14 and $15 billion. According to the report from the Israeli financial newspaper TheMarker, the companies will officially announce the agreement later Monday.
Meanwhile, oil prices dropped to their lowest level in three months on Monday despite OPEC efforts to curb crude output, dragged down as U.S. drillers kept adding rigs.
According to data released late Friday from oil services provider Baker Hughes, U.S. drillers added oil rigs for an eighth consecutive week, taking advantage of the recovery in prices thanks to the production cuts in our to ramp up their own activity.
U.S. crude futures fell 0.82% to $48.09 by 7:02AM ET (11:02GMT), while Brent oil lost 0.58% to $51.07.
Elsewhere, elections in the Netherlands on Wednesday are being watched as a bellwether for the spread of populism in Europe, particularly ahead of next month's French election, as well as those in Germany set for September.
Opinion polls have suggested that Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders' right-wing Freedom Party, which wants to take the Netherlands out of the European Union and stop Muslim immigration, has lost its lead to more mainstream opponents.
But investors remained weary over the possibility of a Brexit or Trump-style shock result.
In the U.K., speculation pointed to the fact that British Prime Minister Theresa May was may officially trigger Article 50 on Tuesday when she updates the Parliament on last week’s EU council. The press has been full of reports that the British government is preparing for a scenario where no trade deal is struck with the EU in 2 years’ time.