Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York on October 27, 2021.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
US stock futures rose slightly in overnight trading on Sunday as investors prepared for the first trade in November.
Market participants are preparing for another week of corporate earnings, a key Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday, and the job report in October.
Dow futures rose 80 points. S&P 500 futures gained 0.25% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.25%.
Stocks closed October on Friday and all three major averages closed at record highs. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq had their best months since November 2020.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 5.8% in October. The S&P 500 was up 6.9% last month and the technology-focused Nasdaq Composite was up 7.3% in October. The month marked a rebound from September as major indices fell.
Corporate earnings season dominated October amid solid earnings, even when it came to global supply chain concerns. About half of the S&P 500 companies released quarterly results, and more than 80% of them exceeded earnings estimates by Wall Street analysts, according to Refinitiv.
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As the earnings season continues this week, investors will also be watching the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. The central bank is widely expected to announce that it will settle its $ 120 billion monthly bond purchases and complete the program by the middle of next year.
Investors will also be on the lookout for comments from the Fed on rising prices as inflation is at a 30-year high.
“The Fed is part of a global move to remove the housing and the market is passing it right by,” said Peter Boockvar, CIO of the Bleakley Advisory Group. “In a way, the stock market is playing a chicken game with this inflation move and interest rates and central bank reaction.”
The other big event for the week will be October’s October employment report, which could show some improvement in hiring as new cases of Covid-19 continued to decline.
“The non-farm workforce is expected to stand at a robust 450,000, which is likely to bring the unemployment rate down again,” said Jim Paulsen, Leuthold Group’s chief investment strategist. “The key to the report will be how much wage inflation is rising and whether the employment rate will finally pick up again after so many recently extended unemployment benefits.”
– CNBC’s Patti Domm contributed to this report.