Stock futures climb as Wall Street looks for S&P 500 to build on fresh all-time high: Live updates
Futures tied to the benchmark S&P 500 added 1.2%, while Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.57%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures ticked up 395 points, or 1.05%.
Stocks roared back to life on Friday after losing ground earlier in the week. The S&P 500 broke both its intraday and closing record from January of 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also closed higher, with all three major indexes now in the green so far in 2024. Friday’s gain officially signaled that Wall Street is indeed in a bull market stemming from an October 2022 low.
Tech stood out among S&P 500 sectors on Friday, gaining 2.35% on the day and 4% on the week.
Wall Street’s strength will seemingly depend on whether or not the U.S. central bank will capture an economic soft landing. Investors are hoping for a series of benchmark interest rate cuts beginning in March, although they are less sure the initial cut will come to fruition.
Investors will be closely watching a slate of economic reports due out this week, including gross domestic product data on Thursday and the personal consumption expenditures prices on Friday. Both reports could provide insight into how central bank policymakers view monetary policy moving forward.
Real estate stocks drag Hang Seng to be biggest loser among Asian benchmarks
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index tumbled over 2%, led by real estate stocks after the People’s Bank of China held its one-year and five-year loan prime rates at 3.45% and 4.2%, respectively.
The largest loser on the HSI was property developer China Resources Land, which plunged 9.54%.
Other stocks on the biggest losers list also included residential property services investment firm Longfor Group, which lost 5.99%, as well as hotpot chain Haidilao, which declined 6.27%.
China LPR decision awaited, markets expect no change
Investors will be looking out for an update from China’s central bank on its one- and five-year loan prime rates at around 09:15 a.m. Singapore time.
The one- and five-year LPR currently stand at 3.45% and 4.2%, respectively, and markets expect the People’s Bank of China to make no changes to the rates.
PBOC surprised market participants and held the rate on some 995 billion yuan ($138.84 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans unchanged at 2.50% last week.
“The market expects both the 1Y and 5Y LPRs to be unchanged at 3.45% and 4.2% respectively,” analysts wrote in a client note, while also noting that China’s foreign direct investment recorded its biggest annual drop in 2023 since 2009.
Analysts said FDI in China fell 8% last year, in Chinese yuan terms, attributing the decline to several factors including the country’s economic slowdown, high global interest rates, increasing regulatory and geopolitical risks, and the West’s tough stance on China’s technology sector.