US open: Stocks higher as traders brace for corporate earnings
Wall Street stocks were in the green early on Monday as market participants looked ahead to a busy week of earnings.
As of 1520 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.17% at 33,430.99, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.50% to 3,992.37 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.96% firmer at 11,247.33.
The Dow opened 55.50 points higher on Monday, extending solid gains recorded in the previous session.
Investors will be zeroed in on the Federal Reserve throughout the course of the week, with many weighing the possibility that the central bank may be close to slowing the pace of its inflation-fighting rate hikes after Governor Christopher Waller said he was in favour of a 0.25% rate increase at Fed's next meeting.
Outside of monetary policy, traders will also have a veritable array of macro data and corporate earnings to sift through this week, with the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation thermometer, the personal consumption expenditure price index, due out on Friday, and earnings from Microsoft, IBM, Tesla, Visa, and Mastercard all set to be published before the week is out.
On the macro front, the Conference Board's leading index declined sharply yet again in December 2022, dropping 1% to 110.5, following a 1.1% contraction in November. With December's fall factored in, the LEI was down 4.2% over the six months ended December - a much steeper decline that the 1.9% fall seen between December 2021 and June 2022.
No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Monday.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com