Futures Point To Positive Open For Wall Street

On a quiet day of economic announcements, the investors are keenly observing factors impacting the stock markets, especially the spread of COVID-19 variant.

Initial signs from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open higher. Asian shares finished mostly up, while European shares are trading mostly positive.

The Dow futures are up 91.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 12.25 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were progressing 79.00 points.

The U.S. major stocks closed higher on Monday. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached new highs going into the close of trading. The Dow jumped 351.82 points or 1 percent to 36,302.38, the Nasdaq spiked 217.89 points or 1.4 percent to 15,871.26 and the S&P 500 surged 65.40 points or 1.4 percent to 4,791.19.


On the economic front, the Redbook data, a weekly measure of comparable store sales at chain stores, discounters, and department stores, is scheduled on Tuesday. The year-over-year store sales were up 16.4 percent.

The Case-Shiller Home Price for October will be published at 9.00 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 1.0 percent, while it was up 1.0 percent in the prior month.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency or FHFA House Price Index for October will be released at 9.00 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 0.7 percent, while it was up 0.9 percent in the prior month.

The Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index for December will be issued at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for 11, while it was up 11 in the prior month. A five-year Treasury Note auction will be held at 1.00 pm ET.

The Fed Money Supply for November is scheduled at 1.00 pm ET. In the prior month, the M2 money supply was up $192.9 billion.

Asian stocks ended mostly higher on Tuesday. Chinese shares eked out modest gains. The benchmark Shanghai Composite index edged up 14.14 points, or 0.39 percent, to 3,630.11 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index ended up 0.24 percent at 23,280.56.


Japanese shares hit a one-month high. The Nikkei index rallied as much as 392.70 points, or 1.37 percent, to 29,069.16, marking its highest since Nov. 25. The broader Topix index closed 1.37 percent higher at 2,005.02.

European shares are trading mostly higher. Among the major indexes in the region, the CAC 40 Index of France is progressing 32.12 points or 0.45 percent. The German DAX is adding 103.35 points or 0.65 percent, the U.K. FTSE 100 Index is declining 1.24 points or 0.02 percent. The Swiss Market Index is adding 87.22 points or 0.68 percent.

The Euro Stoxx 50 Index, which is a compilation of 50 blue chip stocks across the Eurozone is up 0.46 percent.