By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening higher Monday, with investors looking to start the new week on a brighter note, looking for bargains after a relentless multi-week selloff.
At 7 AM ET (1100 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 330 points, or 1.1%, S&P 500 Futures traded 46 points, or 1.2%, higher and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 120 points, or 1%.
The main equity indices on Wall Street registered another losing week last week, pressured by weak quarterly results from a number of major retailers, including Target (NYSE:TGT) and Walmart (NYSE:WMT), as rising prices for essentials like food and fuel meant consumers cut back on discretionary spending.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average registered its eighth consecutive losing week, the longest such streak since 1923, while the broad-based S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite recorded their seventh negative weeks in a row.
The deluge of quarterly earnings from the retail sector continues this week, with reports due from the likes of Costco (NASDAQ:COST), Dollar General (NYSE:DG), Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN), Macy’s (NYSE:M) and Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) as the week progresses. On Monday, it’s Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:ZM) that will be in the spotlight.
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) announced Monday it was raising its U.S. minimum hourly wage to $22, a step closer to its promise of paying workers $25 an hour by 2025.
The economic data slate is largely empty Monday, but the week does contain the release of the Fed’s primary gauge of inflation, the core personal consumption expenditures price index, on Friday.
There is also a report on durable goods orders, as well as data on initial jobless claims, revised figures for first quarter GDP, as well as data on new home sales.
However, the main focus will be Wednesday’s release of the minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting, with investors looking for comments from the central bank policymakers about taming inflation pressures without tipping the economy into recession.
The Fed has already hiked interest rates by 75 basis points since March and markets are pricing in 50 basis point rate hikes in June and July.
Elsewhere, the World Economic Forum kicked off in Davos after a two-year pandemic-enforced hiatus, while U.S. President Joe Biden made a mistake in declaring that the U.S. military would intervene to defend Taiwan in the event of an attack from mainland China.
Oil prices edged higher Monday, boosted by the expectation of renewed demand as Shanghai prepares to reopen at the beginning of June after a two-month lockdown and ahead of the start of the main U.S. driving season.
Lockdowns in China, and the commercial hub Shanghai, in particular, to combat a prolonged COVID outbreak have hammered industrial output and thus fuel demand from the world’s top crude importer.
Additionally, U.S. fuel demand should soon pick up, with the U.S. peak driving season traditionally beginning on Memorial Day weekend at the end of May and ending on Labor Day in September.
By 7 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 1.3% higher at $111.72 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 1.4% to $111.48.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.9% to $1,859.26/oz, while EUR/USD traded 1.1% higher at 1.0674.