US pre-open: Futures trade higher as investors look ahead to CPI reading
Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Monday as market participants await the release of August's consumer price index later in the week.
As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.29%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.42% and 0.45% firmer, respectively.
The Dow closed 377.19 points higher on Friday as major indices snapped a three-week losing streak.
Stocks were trading higher prior to the open, with investors holding out for last month's CPI reading on Tuesday and the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting, with the central bank expected to deliver its third straight 0.75% interest rate hike as part of an ongoing effort to fight high inflation.
Also drawing an amount of investor attention was news that the White House was planning to curb shipments of chips used for artificial intelligence and chipmaking tools to China, according to Reuters.
AvaTrade's Naeem Aslam said: "US and European futures are picking up the momentum from Asia, where things have been trading in a positive direction. Overall, traders are a lot more optimistic to begin the week as markets recorded a lot better weekly progress last week and broke their spell of weekly losses.
"Traders are hoping for the best, and they are gearing up for the latest reading of US inflation which will be coming out on Tuesday. The reading is going to be the most important one to watch as it is highly possible that we may see another lower number. If inflation data in the US shows further weakness, that will support the sentiment massively among traders and investors. This is because it will send a clear sign that the Fed finally has something under its control, and there are chances that inflation readings will continue to fall from their recent highs, which everyone is looking at."
No major data points or corporate earnings were slated for release on Monday.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com