Dow futures rise 100 points ahead of the first trading day in August

U.S. equity futures rose in overnight trading on Sunday as investors braced for the first trading day in August.

Dow futures rose 135 points. S&P 500 futures gained 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.35%.

The major averages managed to mark their sixth month of gains in July, although volatility rose amid concerns about the economic recovery in the face of the spread of the delta Covid variant. The Nasdaq Composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained around 1.2% and 1.3%, respectively, in July, while the broad S&P 500 gained nearly 2.3% last month.

Inflation worries plagued the market as well, but a key inflation indicator on Friday showed less than feared price pressures. The basic personal consumption expenditure price index rose 3.5% in June year-on-year. It marked a sharp acceleration in inflation, but came in slightly below a Dow Jones forecast of a 3.6% jump.

Also on Friday, US gross domestic product in the second quarter accelerated 6.5% on an annualized basis, considerably less than the 8.4% growth rate expected by Dow Jones.

On the profit side, Amazon fell nearly 7.6% on Friday after the tech giant reported its first quarterly shortfall in three years and gave weaker guidance.

The first trading day in August comes at the height of the earnings season. Lyft, Amgen, Uber, CVS Health, General Motors, Roku and Square are all releasing their quarterly results this week.

Of the 59% of S&P 500 companies that released a second quarter report, 88% exceeded consensus earnings expectations, according to FactSet.