Stock futures rise as stocks look to extend August gains



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Stock futures opened higher on Tuesday night, with major stock indexes hitting near all-time highs as the first September session approached.

S&P 500 contracts rose. The index closed a seventh consecutive monthly gain in August, rising nearly 3% in the month as strong earnings growth, an ongoing economic recovery and a still accommodative Federal Reserve helped offset new concerns about away from the Delta variant. Nonetheless, the Nasdaq outperformed with a monthly increase of 4%, with investors reinvesting in technology and growth stocks seen as benefiting from hold-in behavior.

Investors enter a historically more difficult month, with September typically comprising the worst month of the year for stocks, according to an analysis by LPL Financial. And while stocks are enjoying a seven-month winning streak, they are also extending an unusually long period of no pullback, given that the S&P 500 has not suffered a 5% correction since last October.

“I don’t know if this is the month to sit on the sidelines, but I expect we will have some volatility,” Michelle Connell, owner of Portia Capital Management, told Yahoo Finance. “I think the upside can be limited here until the end of the year, so I think it’s worth sitting around and looking at what you own, reassessing, looking at potential drops.”

Others also remained cautiously optimistic about the way forward for US equities.

“We believe that the continued growth of the economy and the reopening of commerce will continue”, Cliff Corso, president and chief investment officer of Advisors Asset Management, told Yahoo Finance. “What we’re looking at are things that are more value oriented, especially where there is an income component through dividends, as that tends to dampen volatility.”

“We think there is a lot of foundation as we look to the future, despite some of the new challenges we are going to face, be it a tax debate, a reduction in the inflation, from all these headwinds, ”he added. “We still have a very accommodating Fed, we still have the potential for a really big tax package, and so a lot of that foundation is still with us.”

New economic data released on Wednesday and later this week should help provide a more timely view of the strength of the recovery and the way forward for monetary policy. On Wednesday morning, ADP will release its closely watched monthly report on private sector wages, which is expected to show that U.S. private sector employers created 638,000 jobs in August after a disappointing 330,000 in July.

6:09 p.m. ET Tuesday: Rise in equity futures

Here are the main moves at the start of the night session on Tuesday evening:

  • S&P 500 Futures Contracts (ES = F): +7.75 points (+ 0.17%) to 4,529.25

  • Dow Futures (YM = F): +51 points (+ 0.14%) at 35,391.00

  • Nasdaq Futures (NQ = F): +19 points (+ 0.12%) to 15,601.50

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUG 10: People walk past the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on August 10, 2021 in New York City.  Markets were higher in morning trading as investors look to a rare bipartisan effort in the Senate to pass a massive infrastructure bill that, if passed, will inject billions into the U.S. economy.  (Photo by Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – AUG 10: People walk past the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on August 10, 2021 in New York City. Markets were higher in morning trading as investors look to a rare bipartisan effort in the Senate to pass a massive infrastructure bill that, if passed, will inject billions into the U.S. economy. (Photo by Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @emily_mcck



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