Premarket: Wall Street futures muted as investors pause after rally
U.S. stock index futures were muted on Tuesday as investors took a breather after Wall Street posted its biggest intraday gains in weeks in the previous session, while markets braced for a data-heavy week of labour reports.
A rally in financial stocks was the main driver of robust gains on Wall Street on Monday that sent the blue-chip Dow to a record high. The Dow is about 2 per cent away from the historic 50,000 mark.
Energy companies provided a boost as well, and were largely in the spotlight after U.S. military forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend, and investors bet the move could allow U.S. firms access to Venezuelan oil reserves.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration plans to meet executives from oil companies later this week to discuss boosting production in Venezuela.
On Tuesday, oil firms stabilized, with SLB rising 1.9 per cent, and giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron up 0.5 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively in premarket trading.
At 5:36 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 83 points, or 0.17 per cent, S&P 500 E-minis were down 3.5 points, or 0.05 per cent, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 7.25 points, or 0.02 per cent.
Investors were watching for a “Santa Claus rally” — a seasonal pattern in which stocks often get a late boost over the last five trading days of December and the first two of January, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac — but the S&P 500 was flat over that span this year.
This week, a series of labour market data will be on investors’ radar including December’s crucial nonfarm payrolls numbers on Friday that can influence the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy path.
The dataset commands renewed importance after Fed Chair Jerome Powell urged caution against further reductions at the central bank’s December meeting until there was more clarity on the health of the labor market.
The final reading of S&P Global’s business activity survey for December and comments from Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin will be parsed.
Among stocks, Vistra gained 4.5 per cent before the bell after announcing a deal to buy Cogentrix Energy from Quantum Capital Group for about $4.7 billion.
Microchip Technology gained 4.4 per cent after raising expectations for its third-quarter net sales on Monday.
Stock markets continued to rally in early European trading on Tuesday, as global markets remained upbeat ahead of key market data this week, while the U.S. raid and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro did not dampen traders’ risk appetite.
Europe’s STOXX 600 closed at an all-time high on Monday. The risk-on mood continued during Asian trading on Tuesday, and European stocks opened higher.
Toppled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty on Monday to narcotics charges, after the United States seized him and took him to New York at the weekend.
Markets remained positive, with the STOXX 600 up roughly 0.1 per cent on the day, having touched a new all-time high earlier in the session. The MSCI World Equity Index was up 0.2 per cent, while London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.4 per cent.
“It doesn’t look like it’s rattling the market in any serious way at all… The market’s not pricing in an escalation of risk, not pricing in a ripple effect of Trump potentially delving into other South American countries,” said Fiona Cincotta, senior markets analyst at City Index.
“The general sense of the market is upbeat at the moment.”
The raid on Venezuela provided a boost to big U.S. oil companies’ stock on Monday, as investors bet Washington would give U.S. firms access to Venezuela’s oil reserves. U.S. President Donald Trump plans to meet with executives from U.S. oil companies later this week to discuss boosting Venezuelan oil production, Reuters reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Oil prices edged slightly higher on Tuesday, but analysts said it was too early to assess the impact on Venezuela’s oil output. Brent crude futures were up 0.3 per cent at $61.94 a barrel.
“Venezuela’s energy infrastructure remains in severe disrepair, so any meaningful production rebound will be a multi-year prospect at best,” UBS analysts wrote in a research note.
The U.S. dollar was steady, with the dollar index at 98.395. It had surged to a four-week high in the previous session but gave up all of its gains after a measure of U.S. manufacturing activity slumped to a 14-month low. The euro was little changed at $1.1715.
The upbeat mood in markets was driven by expectations for U.S. interest rate cuts. Traders were focused on a U.S. monthly employment report, due on Friday, which will influence the market’s monetary policy expectations. Financial markets are pricing in two Federal Reserve rate cuts this year, according to LSEG data.
In an interview on CNBC on Monday, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari warned of the risk that the jobless rate could “pop” higher, but said inflation is slowly trending down.
“While Kashkari’s neutral stance may slow rate cut expectations, we believe continued labor market weakness and softer macroeconomic data will keep the FOMC on track for another rate cut this quarter and maintain downward pressure on the US dollar,” UBS analysts wrote.
The euro zone economy expanded at a slower pace last month but ended 2025 with its strongest quarterly growth in more than two years, PMI data showed. Consumer prices data showed prices rose slightly less than expected in France, while climbing 1.8 per cent in Germany’s most populous state. Euro zone government bond yields dropped after the data, with the benchmark ten-year German yield at 2.8561 per cent .
Gold prices hovered near a one-week high, with spot gold around $4,451. Copper hit an all-time high.
Reuters
