US pre-open: Stocks seen touch higher as investors eye Yellen speech
US futures pointed to a marginally firmer open on Wall Street at the start of what is expected to be a fairly quiet week as we head into Christmas, with investors turning their attention to a speech by Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen.
At 1125 GMT, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were all up 0.2%. In Europe, the main indices drifted a little lower, with bank shares on the back foot following the recent rally.
Meanwhile, oil prices were a little higher, with West Texas Intermediate up 0.3% to $52.07 a barrel and Brent crude up 0.5% to $55.50.
In currency markets, the dollar was up 0.4% versus the pound and 0.1% against the euro, but 0.4% weaker versus the yen.
Remo Fritschi, institutional sales manager at ADS Securities in London, said: "Wall Street may have been depressed going into the weekend break after news broke that China has seized that unmanned underwater drone, but futures markets are currently eyeing a modest rebound at the open as these political tensions appear to be ebbing – at least for now. We have a relatively quiet day ahead in terms of economic data although Markit’s preliminary December PMI releases are slated for shortly after the opening bell and could provide some more direction, although the risk here is probably on the downside if we see any break in the recent pattern of positive news.
“The generally subdued theme may well continue right through to the Christmas break, although Thursday’s US durable goods order print will be worth watching with forecasters currently expecting a sharply negative call here. We’re still not in a position to rule out a break higher for the Dow up to 20,000 before the year end, but the headwinds do seem to be building.”
With little in the way of economic news, investors will focus their attention on a speech by Yellen at 1830 GMT at the University of Baltimore on the ‘State of the Labor Market’.
In corporate news, Canadian insurer Fairfax Financial has agreed to buy Swiss peer Allied World Assurance Co in a $4.9bn deal.
Elsewhere, Lennar Corp was likely to be in focus after the housebuilder reported a 14.6% jump in fourth-quarter revenue.
On the data front, Markit’s services purchasing managers’ index is at 1445 GMT.