US stock futures trod water on Monday, coming off a winning week on Wall Street, as investors looked ahead to Federal Reserve speakers and a key inflation reading for clues to the odds of another big rate cut.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) were little changed, hovering above Friday’s record close for the blue-chip index. S&P 500 futures (ES=F) rose roughly 0.1%, while those on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) climbed 0.2%.
The market is laboring with concerns about the health of the US economy, which have persisted after the Fed’s bold pivot to cutting interest rates last week. The big question now is whether upcoming data releases this week will support Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s assertion that conditions remain strong.
Read more: What the Fed rate cut means for bank accounts, CDs, loans, and credit cards
Much will depend on Friday’s reading on the PCE index — the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — and Thursday’s second quarter GDP print. Experts believe that cooling inflation, not a rising risk of recession, will give policymakers a green light for another 0.5% cut this year.
Before then, investors will hope to get more policy insight from speeches by a panoply of Fed officials, starting with Austan Goolsbee and Raphael Bostic on Monday. Given the rare lack of unanimity in the last decision, remarks from Powell and dissenting Fed governor Michelle Bowman later in the week are likely to be closely scrutinized.
On the corporate front, Intel (INTC) shares climbed after Apollo Global Management reportedly offered to make a multibillion-dollar investment in the struggling chipmaker — a vote of confidence in its turnaround strategy. Intel stock spiked at the end of last week amid a report Qualcomm (QCOM) was exploring a takeover.
