Stocks - U.S. Futures Higher as Market Eyes More Fed Stimulus

By Peter Nurse

Investing.com - U.S. stocks are set to open higher Tuesday, continuing Monday’s late bounce amid hopes U.S. authorities will continue to offer stimulus to support the economy.

At 07:05 AM ET (1105 GMT), S&P 500 Futures traded 39 points, or 1.3%, higher, Nasdaq 100 Futures up 115 points, or 1.2%. The Dow Futures contract rose 478 points, or 1.9%.

The U.S. central bank said late Monday it will soon start purchasing individual corporate debt, in another effort to support the credit market as part of its emergency facilities introduced in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

This helped Wall Street close higher, reversing hefty earlier losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.6%, or 157 points, after falling more than 300 points at the open. The S&P 500 gained 0.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 1.4%.

Adding additional support Tuesday is a report that the Trump administration is preparing a nearly $1 trillion infrastructure proposal in order to support the world’s largest economy.

This news has outweighed worries of a second wave of the Covid-19 virus, with several states including Texas and California reporting a resurgence of new cases.

Focus will soon turn to Fed chair Jerome Powell as he testifies in front of the Senate on his economic outlook and recent monetary policy decisions, at 10 AM ET (1400 GMT).

Last week, the Fed left interest rates unchanged near zero and said the central bank would do anything needed to support the economy as it struggles to recover from Covid-19 business shutdowns.

Ahead of Powell’s appearance there will be the release of the April retail sales numbers, at 8:30 AM ET. These are expected to show a strong rebound, up 8%, after a decline of 16.4% in the prior month.

The retail sales data will be followed by industrial production and manufacturing output figures at 9:15 AM.

In corporate news, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) is out with earnings after the market close. The tech giant is one of the first to report a full quarter that was nearly all consumed by Covid-19 business shutdowns.

Also in the spotlight is Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). EU antitrust authorities have launched two probes into whether it violated competition laws through its Apple Pay service and its App Store for software that runs on its mobile devices.

Oil prices edged higher Tuesday, helped by the International Energy Agency's upward revision to its forecasts for global oil demand this year and next. The IEA still expects demand to contract on average by over 8 million barrels a day this year, however.

U.S. crude prices rose 1.6% to $37.70 a barrel, while Brent Futures climbed 1.7% to $40.40.

Elsewhere, gold futures rose 0.6% to $1,736.35/oz, while EUR/USD traded at 1.1319, down 0.1%.

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