By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening higher Tuesday, starting the holiday-shortened week on a positive note after three straight weeks of losses as investors prepare for more Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.
At 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 200 points, or 0.6%, S&P 500 Futures traded 28 points, or 0.7% higher, and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 95 points, or 0.8%.
Wall Street was closed on Monday as the U.S. celebrated Labor Day, having ended last week on a negative note, the third losing week in a row.
A summer rally in stock markets has taken a hit since Fed chief Jerome Powell’s hawkish-sounding speech at Jackson Hole, where he warned that the Fed’s fight against inflation could result in economic pain.
Federal Reserve policymakers next meet in late September, and investors will carefully study economic data before this to try and gauge how much further the policymakers will take rates higher while trying to tame inflation.
Friday’s nonfarm payrolls showed the labor market remains reasonably healthy, with 315,000 positions added last month, and attention Tuesday will be on the Institute for Supply Management August Non-Manufacturing PMI data, at 10:00 ET (14:00 GMT), with economists expecting a reading of 55.1, down from 56.7 in July.
Aside from economic data, investors will also focus on a speech by Powell at a Cato Institute conference on Thursday for any indications that the Fed is leaning towards another 75-basis-point rate hike at its September 20-21 meeting.
In corporate news, CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) on Monday agreed to buy home healthcare services company Signify Health (NYSE:SGFY) for about $8 billion in cash, a move that will enable one of the largest U.S. healthcare companies to provide further care management to patients in their homes.
Additionally, Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY) will be in the spotlight after the suicide of the troubled retailer's chief financial officer on Friday in the wake of the announcement of store closures and layoffs to cut costs.
Oil prices weakened Tuesday, handing back some of the previous session’s gains after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, a group known as OPEC+, announced that it will cut output by a modest 100,000 barrels per day in October.
Oil prices have fallen since the start of June on concerns that interest rate hikes and COVID-19 curbs in parts of China, the world's top crude importer, may slow global economic growth and cool oil demand.
By 07:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.7% lower at $86.25 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 3.2% to $92.64. Both contracts surged nearly 3% on Monday, but there was no U.S. settlement on Monday, the U.S. Labor Day holiday.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,723.70/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% higher at 0.9932.