Stock futures flat after Dow, S&P 500 set new records

Future contracts linked to the major U.S. stock index held steady during the overnight session on Sunday night, suggesting that Wall Street could have muted trading on Monday after reaching new records last week.

Dow futures lost 2 points, while contracts linked to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 also changed little.

The lukewarm movement in the futures market on Sunday followed another record of the Dow Jones industrial average on Friday, when it scored nearly 300 points to end at 33,800.6. The S&P 500 achieved 0.8% and the third consecutive record.

Stocks linked to the recovering economy led to many of the gains last week as vaccination efforts in the US accelerated. Both the Dow and the S&P 500 climbed by at least 2% last week. The Nasdaq rose 3.1% in the same period as some retailers grabbed big tech names, with Apple up more than 8% and Amazon and Alphabet up more than 6% each.

The first-quarter reporting season begins this week, with expectations for generally positive news and an upward trend for US equities thanks to a recovery economy. Many of the country’s largest banks, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, will report results for the three months ended March 31 this week.

The coming week is also packed with Federal Reserve speeches and important economic data, including a much-anticipated inflation that will occur on Tuesday when the consumer price index is released.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell begins a week of several Fed appearances with a Sunday night interview on ’60 Minutes’. He also speaks Wednesday during an Economic Club of Washington event.

“A positive fiscal shock, strong housing backlash, a large stockpile of savings and the Fed pushing inflation above 2% are a fundamentally different economic background,” Evercore stock strategist Dennis DeBusschere said in an e-mail. post written. “US data is expected to be strong this week and US vaccinations to increase. The real rate is still too negative and is higher, and it supports the better than the risk factor.”

Investors will also see President Joe Biden’s effort to advance an important infrastructure proposal known as the U.S. Jobs Plan. Biden, who along with other Democrats promised a major infrastructure overhaul in the 2020 election, will meet with a dual group of lawmakers on Monday to try to persuade Capitol Hill to support the $ 2 trillion package.

Congress will return to Washington this week and be in session for the first time since Biden debuted his proposal, which spans hundreds of billions of dollars for roads, bridges, airports, broadband, electric vehicles, housing and job training.

The president’s plan will also increase the corporate tax rate to 28% and hamper other overseas tax avoidance strategies.