Stock Futures Stable After Record S&P 500 Close

U.S. stock index futures were little changed overnight Tuesday after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at record highs during regular trading.

Futures contracts linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 18 points. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were slightly higher.

The S&P 500 rose 0.15% on Tuesday for its fourth consecutive positive session, hitting both an intraday high and a closing high. This is the benchmark’s 62nd intraday record this year. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.52%, also hitting intraday and closing highs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.09%, although the 30-stock benchmark failed to hit a new milestone, with Home Depot acting as the biggest drag.

The S&P may have hit a record high, but Wells Fargo Securities head of equity strategy Christopher Harvey sees more gains on the horizon. It raised its year-end target to 4,825 on Tuesday, 7.5% above where the index ended the day. Harvey’s call is based on the strength of the S&P through August, which extends into the final months of the year.

“Over the past 31 years, there have been nine instances where the S&P 500 has returned more than 10% in the first eight months of the year; over the next four months, the index reached an additional average of + 8.4%. cases have produced negative returns in the past four months, ”he wrote in a note to clients.

The highly anticipated Jackson Hole Symposium kicks off Thursday, where central bankers will potentially provide updates on their plan to cut monetary stimulus. The Federal Reserve bought at least $ 120 billion in bonds a month to curb long-term interest rates and revive economic growth as the pandemic wreaked havoc on the economy.

President Jerome Powell is expected to make remarks on Friday.

“The tapering rhetoric is worry, but if inflation continues to soar and economic data continues to be mixed, the timing of the decline may be postponed,” noted Lindsey Bell, chief strategist. investments at Ally Invest. “The Fed is unlikely to force a cut on an economy that is not ready, and the outlook becomes less certain with the ramp-up of the Delta variant.”

Bell added that the deciding factor could be the August employment report, given that Covid cases have jumped over the past month as the delta variant spreads.

Several tech companies will release their results on Wednesday after the market closes, including the Dow Salesforce component. Box and Snowflake are also on the deck.