Wall Street stocks were setting up to open in the green on Monday, as upbeat Chinese data and comments from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen fueled hopes for the health of the world’s two biggest economies.
S&P 500 (^GSPC) futures rose around 0.4%, while those on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) were up about 0.2%. Futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 put on almost 0.6% amid solid gains for Tesla (TSLA) after a Morgan Stanley upgrade.
The three major gauges were looking to shake off a losing week that saw tech stocks stutter as Apple (AAPL) suffered a two-day slump, though the iPhone maker’s stock was continuing to recover ahead of its highly anticipated fall event on Tuesday.
Another positive was the surge in Tesla’s shares, up over 6% in premarket. Morgan Stanley analysts said the EV maker’s Dojo supercomputer could add as much as $500 billion to the company’s market value through faster adoption of robotaxis and network services.
This week, focus also turns to the Consumer Price Index inflation data due for release on Wednesday, a key input for investors trying to assess whether the Federal Reserve will ease up on interest rate hikes at its September meeting.
Yellen on Sunday said she’s “feeling very good” about the chance the US will avoid a recession while still reining in consumer-price rises, a key factor in the Fed debate.
Meanwhile, fresh Chinese inflation and other data raised hopes the Asian powerhouse’s economy could finally be on the mend, after its struggles to recover niggled at investors.
Elsewhere in Asia, Governor Kazuo Ueda said the Bank of Japan could put an end keeping interest rates negative once achievement of its 2% inflation target is in sight. That signals possible interest rate hikes at a central bank that has long stuck with ultra-loose policy.
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