© Reuters. By Peter Nurse
Investing.com – US stocks are set to open higher on Monday, buoyed by hopes of the prompt delivery of a new fiscal stimulus during a busy week of corporate earnings and ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting.
At 07:00 AM ET (1100 GMT), the S&P 500 futures traded 24 points, or 0.8%, higher, the Nasdaq futures rose 183 points, or 1.7%. The contract rose 166 points, or 0.6%.
Senate Republicans are set to launch their proposal for the next coronavirus relief bill, after some disagreements with the White House and Republican lawmakers, possibly as early as Monday.
Still, this does not leave much time for negotiation, 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 a week to spread and are likely to seek more stimulus than the Republicans’ $ 1 trillion plan.
On a positive note was the news that reported cases and deaths fell in many states affected by the virus, including Florida, Arizona, California and Texas. The number of daily deaths also dropped to less than 1,000 on Sunday for the first time in four days.
That said, more than 146,000 Americans have died from Covid-19, nearly a quarter of the world total, and there are almost 4.2 million confirmed cases in the country,
The Federal Reserve meets this week, with its two-day meeting slated to wrap up on Wednesday, though further action is unlikely.
The focus at the “FOMC meeting will once again be on forward-looking and how to better support the recovery. However, any formal decision will still be too premature,” Morten Lund, an analyst at Nordea, said in a research note.
Meanwhile, the earnings season continues, with this week about a third of S&P 500 companies expected to report, including 12 Dow components. In total, 128 S&P 500 members have already reported, with earnings down 40% to date.
From major companies, Facebook (NASDAQ 🙂 is expected on Wednesday, while Apple (NASDAQ :), along with Alphabet (NASDAQ 🙂 and Amazon (NASDAQ 🙂 are set to report Thursday.
United States economic data centers around durable goods for June, at 8:30 am ET, which is expected to rise 7.2%, versus a 15.7% gain in May.
Oil prices were slightly lower on Monday, with futures trading 0.5% lower at $ 41.10 a barrel, while the benchmark international contract fell 0.5% to $ 43.58.
“Market participants seem to be nervous about having a solid two-way view, with a lot of uncertainty that still clouds the picture when it comes to demand,” ING analysts said in a research note.
Elsewhere, it rose 1.7% to $ 1,929.50 / oz, not far from the record $ 1,937.60 per ounce reached on Monday, beating a peak reached in September 2011, while trading at 1.1698, up 0.4%.
