Stock market today: Dow in fresh record close as Powell signals rate cut incoming
(Fixes typo in headline)
* Futures up: Dow 0.78%, S&P 1.02%, Nasdaq 1.05%
By Devik Jain and Medha Singh
Feb 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures bounced 1% on
Monday following a steep sell-off on Wall Street last week, as a
shift in the retail trading frenzy to silver drove up mining
stocks and investors awaited manufacturing data later in the
day.
The iShares Silver Trust ETF SLV.N jumped 9% in premarket
trading as silver broke above $30 an ounce for the first time
since 2013 with an army of retail traders storming into the
metal after betting billions of dollars on stocks last week.
Silver miners Hecla Mining Co HL.N , Coeur Mining Inc
CDE.N and Wheaton Precious Metals Corp WPM.N surged between
12% and 21%.
Wall Street's main indexes last week logged their steepest
weekly fall since October, as investors digested the efficacy
data from Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine trial results,
while a slugfest between Wall Street hedge funds and retail
investors added to volatility.
The CBOE volatility index .VIX slipped about 2 points on
Monday after hitting its highest since October as a surge in
GameStop Corp GME.N and AMC Entertainment Holdings AMC.N and
others burnt hedge funds who had bet against the company and
roiled the broader market.
The meme stocks dominated news on Wall Street last week,
even as Apple Inc AAPL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and other
corporate heavyweights reported quarterly results. Focus now turns towards quarterly earnings from Amazon.com
Inc AMZN.O and Google-owner Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O on Tuesday
to wrap up results from the so-called FAANG group.
At 6:55 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were up 233 points, or
0.78% and S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 37.75 points, or
1.02%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 135.75 points, or
1.05%.
Shares of Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N and Chevron Corp CVX.N
rose about 2% each as sources said the chief executives of the
two largest U.S. oil producers held preliminary talks in early
2020 to explore a merger. The discussions are no longer active.
Videogame retailer GameStop and movie theater operator AMC
Entertainment Holdings added about 6% and 23% on Monday on top
of their gains of nearly 400% and 278% respectively last week.
On the data front, investors awaited to a reading on ISM's
manufacturing index, which is expected to tick lower in January
after accelerating to its highest level in nearly 2-1/2 years in
December.