By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening higher Tuesday, bouncing back from last week’s losses ahead of President-elect Joe Biden inauguration and the upcoming earnings season.
At 7 AM ET (1200 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 189 points, or 0.6%, S&P 500 Futures traded 28 points, or 0.8%, higher, and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 127 points, or 1%.
This move higher in the U.S. equity futures comes after Wall Street suffered its worst week since October, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite dropping 1.5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.9%.
Incoming President Joe Biden is due to be inaugurated on Wednesday amid heightened security after the riot in Washington in early January. Ahead of this, his nominated Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will appear before the Senate Finance Committee later Tuesday as part of her confirmation process.
Yellen is set to argue forcefully in favor of Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion Covid relief plan, with her prepared remarks calling for the federal government to “act big.”
The need for additional stimulus has been clear for some time, with the U.S. on the verge of 400,000 deaths through the Covid-19 virus. That said, there have been doubts that the full package will get through Congress given opposition from Republican lawmakers.
Away from Washington, Tuesday kicks off a busy week of corporate earnings, with Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) due to report before the open. This follows on from disappointingly received numbers from the likes of JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) last week. BofA's report mirrored the earlier ones, with the release of earlier loan loss provisions bolstering the bottom line while the underlying business weakened. Streaming giant Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) is also due to release its fourth-quarter figures after the close.
The economic data slate is pretty empty Tuesday, and the major focus will be on the first PMI data of 2021 from the U.S., euro zone, U.K. and Japan on Friday, which could be weaker than anticipated given the fresh restrictions and surging virus numbers.
Oil prices pushed higher, helped by signs of growth in China, the world’s largest crude importer, and optimism over U.S. stimulus measures.
These gains occurred despite the International Energy Agency lowering its forecasts for global oil demand in 2021 as a whole by 300,000 barrels a day, on the back of renewed lockdowns to contain the pandemic.
U.S. crude futures traded 0.3% higher at $52.60 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract rose 1.4% to $55.51. There was no settlement for the U.S. contract on Monday as American markets were closed for a public holiday.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 0.7% to $1,841.80/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.4% higher at 1.2128.