Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on Aug. 8, 2024.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stock futures inched higher in overnight trading Sunday after the S&P 500 registered its best week of 2024.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 rose 0.2%, while futures connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 50 points, or 0.1%. Nasdaq-100 futures edged up 0.2%
Stocks are coming off a winning week amid a volatile stretch for equities. The broad index rallied 3.9% for its best week since 2023. The Nasdaq Composite and Dow added 5.2% and 2.9%, respectively.
“Much like some of the last recoveries that we’ve had after pullbacks, this was a little game of ‘put the money back where it came from,'” SoFi’s Liz Young Thomas told CNBC on Friday.
She added that the market needed “good news” to begin recovering from the previous week’s rout. That arrived in the form of good retail sales, initial jobless claims and results from Walmart.
Last week’s rally came after August got off to a turbulent start. Earlier this month, disappointing data fueled recession fears and concerns that the Federal Reserve was behind the curve on rate cuts. The worries sparked a global sell-off, pushing the S&P 500 on Aug. 5 to record its worst day since 2022.
Fresh data last week seemed to subdue an anxious market, and boost hopes that the economy can attain a soft landing scenario. The 12-month inflation rate measured by July’s consumer price index slowed to 2.9% — its lowest reading in more than three years.
Wall Street is looking ahead to Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole, Wyoming, speech on Friday as investors search for more clarity on the outlook for rate cuts. That won’t be the only Fed news of the week, as minutes from the Federal Reserve’s most recent meeting are on deck for Wednesday. The Democratic National Convention also kicks off Monday.
Earnings season presses on Monday with results from Palo Alto Networks and Estee Lauder.
