By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are set to open the new month higher on Tuesday, continuing the positive tone seen the previous month, with investors remaining bullish after the Federal Reserve’s policy shift.
At 7:10 AM ET (1110 GMT), S&P 500 Futures traded 10 points, or 0.3%, higher, the Dow Futures contract rose 13 points, or 0.1%, while Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 120 points, or 1%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Monday 0.8% lower, while posting its best August performance since 1984. The S&P 500 index fell 0.2%, but gained more than 7% for the month to notch its best August since 1986. The Nasdaq Composite index gained 0.7%, posting gains of nearly 10% in the month, for its best monthly gain since 2000.
The Federal Reserve has continued to pound its message that the economy will continue to benefit from an accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future. This follows Thursday’s change in the way the central bank approaches inflation and unemployment, the two pillars of its policy mandate.
The central bank will not raise interest rates just because the unemployment rate is falling, the Fed’s vice chairman, Richard Clarida, said Monday.
Fed Governor Lael Brainard is scheduled to comment about the bank's monetary policy shift later Tuesday at the Brookings Institution.
The key economic release Tuesday will be the August ISM manufacturing PMI, at 10 AM ET (1400 GMT), which is expected to show a small increase to 54.5, from 54.2 in July, suggesting the important manufacturing sector is still recovering.
In corporate news, Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:ZM) is likely to be in focus after the popular videconferencing app posted blowout second-quarter results after the close Monday, helped by the work-from-home movement.
Additionally, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is likely to be in demand after Bloomberg reported that the iPhone maker had asked suppliers to build at least 75 million 5G iPhones for later this year, around the levels of last year, suggesting demand is holding up for this key product.
Oil prices pushed higher Tuesday, helped by the dollar slumping to its lowest in more than two years, and by signs of manufacturing growth in the likes of China and Germany.
Later Tuesday, investors will look to the American Petroleum Institute’s figures on U.S. oil supply, although these could reflect the disruptions to the market from last week's hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico.
U.S. crude futures traded 1.2% higher at $43.11 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract rose 1.2% to $45.84.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 1% to $1,997.35/oz, climbing back towards the $2,000 level, on the back of the weaker greenback. EUR/USD traded 0.4% higher at 1.1989.