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U.S. equity futures rose early Monday as investors awaited the July jobs report and another busy week of earnings to kick off August trading.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 265 points, or 0.9%. S&P 500 futures advanced 0.55%, and Nasdaq-100 futures climbed 0.93%.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.91% while the Topix declined over 1.The Kospi dropped 4.41%, while the small-cap Kosdaq added 3.2%. Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was little changed.
Oil prices fell after President Donald Trump said earlier Sunday he canceled a planned attack on Iran. U.S. media reports on Friday said the president was gearing up for a new wave of strikes as hopes for a negotiated settlement to the war diminished and energy prices surged.
West Texas Intermediate futures for September delivery declined nearly 6% to $79.66 per barrel. Brent crude futures for October delivery lost 5.16% to $83.39 a barrel.
The three major indexes closed higher on Friday, with the Dow advancing 276.97 points, or about 0.53%, to 52,485.03. The S&P 500 closed up 0.7% at 7,489.72, and the Nasdaq Composite surged 1% to 25,373.85.
With the major averages wrapping up Friday near record highs, attention is turning to whether the catalysts that fueled the rally can continue to drive gains.
While Big Tech companies largely delivered on earnings, investors are becoming less willing to overlook mounting AI-related spending without clearer evidence of earnings growth, according to Megan Horneman, chief investment officer at Verdence Capital Advisors.
“The one takeaway that I had from those tech earnings is that investors don’t have that appetite to just continue to pay and pay and pay without any clear insight into what this capex spending is going to do from an earnings perspective,” Horneman told CNBC’s “Fast Money” on Friday. “[With] big tech out of the way, what’s the catalyst here that’s going to get the market to continue to go higher? We just don’t see it … there are going to be more risks that we have going into August and the second half of this year.”
Meanwhile, earnings reports due out this week are coming from companies that could offer clearer insights into broader economic conditions. Results are expected from McDonald’s, Kraft Heinz, Costco Wholesale and Walt Disney. Technology companies, including Palantir, and semiconductor giants like Advanced Micro Devices, are also on deck.
Investors will also have a full slate of labor market data to digest next week, culminating with Friday’s closely watched monthly jobs report. The U.S. economy is expected to have added 87,500 nonfarm payrolls in July, up from 57,000 jobs the previous month, according to FactSet consensus estimates. The unemployment rate is also set to edge higher, to 4.3% from 4.2%.
