By Noreen Burke
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening moderately higher on Monday, holding gains after Wall Street's main indexes rallied on Friday as market participants try to gauge whether markets have found a bottom or are experiencing a bear market bounce.
At 06:45 AM ET (1045 GMT), the Dow futures contract was up 65 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 futures traded 11 points, or 0.3% higher, and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 50 points, or 0.4%.
Futures ticked higher after strong gains on Wall Street on Friday that saw the Dow jump 2.7% by the close, the S&P 500 climb 3.1% and the Nasdaq Composite rise 3.3%, to post the first weekly gains since May.
Despite last week’s gains stock markets are still on track to close out one of their weakest first halves to the year in decades as aggressive rate hikes to stamp out soaring inflation stoked fears of a hard landing for the economy.
Market sentiment has been boosted as oil prices pulled back from the three-month highs hit earlier in June. Investors hope this will ease inflationary pressures which would give the Federal Reserve leeway to tighten policy less aggressively, reducing the risk of a recession.
Stocks likely to be in focus include Nike (NYSE:NKE) which is to report fourth-quarter earnings after the close, just a few days after the athletic footwear manufacturer announced plans to make a full exit from Russia.
On the economic calendar, May data on durable goods orders is due out at 08:30 AM ET (1230 GMT) with economists expecting a slowdown.
Investors will also be watching data on pending home sales at 10:00 AM ET (1400 GMT) for indications on how much rising mortgage rates are affecting the housing sector.
By 06:45 AM ET, U.S. crude futures were little changed at $107.85 a barrel, while the Brent contract was up 0.4% to $109.50.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.6% to $1,841.45/oz, while the euro was up 0.3% to $1.0584.