US pre-open: Futures trade higher following worst week of 2023 for stocks

Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Monday as stocks try to reclaim some of last week's heavy losses.

As of 1220 GMT, Dow Jones futures were up 0.45%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.51% and 0.60% stronger, respectively.

The Dow closed 336.99 points lower on Friday as major averages registered their worst weekly performance of 2023 and Treasury yields surged after the Fed's preferred inflation gauge came in hotter than expected.

Going into the new week, the year-to-date stock market rally now looks to be fading, with traders starting to come to terms with minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting, in with policymakers reiterated their tough stance on inflation, as well as comments from multiple central bankers that seemingly indicate that the interest rates could rise higher even still.

CMC Markets' Michael Hewson said: "When we started 2023 most of the narrative had been centred around when we would see start to see a Fed pivot and the timing of the first rate cut. Once it became apparent that this was somewhat wishful thinking, this narrative started to shift towards a Fed pause, even in the face of mounting evidence of a remarkably resilient US economy. Even when the Fed downshifted the pace of its current rate hiking cycle to 25 basis points at the start of February, there was some disquiet that they might be sending the wrong signal to the market, about their determination to crack down on inflation.

"The resilience of the January payrolls report which came in ahead of expectations at the beginning of this month started to sow the first seeds of doubt into the pause narrative, and while bond markets started to react to these shifting sands, the equity markets still held out the hope that a Fed pause was only a few weeks away. On Friday all notion of a possible pause appears to have gone the way of the dodo, in the face of a series of better-than-expected economic data releases, with markets now pricing in another three 25 basis point rate increases at the March, May, and June Fed meetings."

On the macro front, January durable goods orders will be published at 1330 GMT, while last month's pending home sales report will follow at 1500 GMT and February's Dallas Fed manufacturing index was slated for release at 1530 GMT.

In the corporate space, Zoom Video, Target, and Groupon will all report earning on Monday, while retailers Costco, Lowe's and Macy's will all update on their most recent trading quarters before the week is out.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com