US pre-open: Stocks seen muted as investors continue to eye Trump

US futures pointed to a fairly muted open on Wall Street, with stocks likely to struggle for direction amid a dearth of fresh corporate and economic news as investors continue to keep an eye on President Trump’s policies.

At 1100 GMT, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were all up just 0.1%.

Meanwhile, oil prices were mixed, with West Texas Intermediate up 0.1% at $53.87 a barrel and Brent crude down 0.3% at $56.65.

Jamieson Blake, retail sales manager at ADS Securities, said: “The Dow retook that 20,000 level during Friday’s trade, spurred on in no small part by the lacklustre US wage growth information that does little to pander to the Federal Reserve’s policy hawks. As noted at the end of last week, optimism over the implications of President Trump repealing even part of the Dodd Frank act is cheering the banking sector – and it’s this kind of direct intervention that may well serve to prop up equity valuations for some time yet, even if the overriding theme is that a correction is now long overdue - we would probably have to go back to the financial crisis to find a time when politics has been so explicitly linked to market movements.

“Earnings season continues, although today is relatively low key with the pace likely to pick up as the week progresses, with Disney being the stand-out for tomorrow. US economic data is also thin on the ground for the day ahead in another move that will do nothing to help provide any consensus for the market.”

On the corporate front, Hasbro and Tyson Foods were among the companies slated to report earnings ahead of opening bell.

Second-quarter figures from 21st Century Fox are due after the close. CMC Markets’ Michael Hewson said: “Whilst the figures are expected to be positive, with EPS at $0.49 and revenue at $7.76bn, investors will be keener to hear news on whether the Sky bid is likely to succeed.

“The merger would require regulatory approval in both Europe and the UK, and there are concerns this may not be forthcoming if Sky cannot be independent, seeing as many directors hold positions at both Fox and Sky.”

Meanwhile, a group of nearly 100 major technology companies including Apple, Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft and Facebook were getting together to fight Donald Trump’s immigration restrictions.

On Friday, US District Judge James Robart of Seattle granted a temporary ban on Trump’s immigration order, while a federal appeals court on Sunday declined to reinstate the ban quickly.

There are no major US data releases due on Monday.