Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a higher open on Tuesday, on what will be the first trading day of 2017 as traders returned to their desks from the long New Year’s weekend and looked ahead to a reading on the strength of the U.S. manufacturing sector.
The blue-chip Dow futures surged 149 points, or 0.76%, by 6:48AM ET (11:48GMT), the S&P 500 futures gained 18 points, or 0.80%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded up 40 points, or 0.82%.
After saying goodbye to 2016 with all three major indices closing out the last day of trading last year with a string of three consecutive days of losses for the first time since November 4, buyers looked ready to pour money back into U.S. equities on Tuesday with eyes inevitably returning yet again to the 20,000 point mark in the Dow.
Beyond the psychological impact of the triple zero milestones, the key technical resistance to watch on the blue-chip index this year will first be 2016’s all-time high reached on December 20 at 19,987.63 points.
As American traders returned to their desks Tuesday, sentiment was buoyed by signs of solid factory growth in China, the U.K. and Europe that gave the global manufacturing sector a solid boost heading into 2017.
The China Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers' index, a private gauge of nationwide factory activity, rose to 51.9 in December from 50.9 in November, data released earlier showed. The figure marked the strongest upturn in Chinese manufacturing conditions since January 2013.
In the U.K., manufacturing activity registered an unexpected increase in December, hitting a 30-month high and bolstering confidence over the British economy.
Data released Monday showed that manufacturers in the single currency bloc ramped up activity at the fastest pace in more than five years.
The foreign releases came ahead of readings from inside the U.S. due out later in the session.
Tuesday will see Markit’s revision to the December manufacturing PMI at 9:45AM ET (13:45GMT). The preliminary read out on December 15 led the market research firm to comment that the manufacturing sector showed “a “strong end to 2016 with business conditions improving at the fastest pace since March 2015.”
Just 15 minutes later, investors will have their eye on the more widely followed ISM manufacturing data for December with consensus expecting a further improvement as the manufacturing sector looked set to register a 91st consecutive month of growth.
Also out at 10:00AM ET (15:00GMT), market participants will receive a reading on the real estate sector with November’s construction spending.
Meanwhile, oil prices rose to an 18-month high in the first trading session of 2017 on Tuesday, as traders watched developments surrounding the landmark deal reached by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and several non-OPEC oil producers to reduce their output this year.
The barrel of West Texas rose to its highest level since July 2015 despite concerns about whether major oil producers would follow through on compliance with the historic agreement.
U.S. crude oil futures surged 2.27% to $54.94 at by 6:50AM ET (11:50GMT), while Brent oil soared 2.32% to $58.14.