Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on Aug. 8, 2024.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stock futures were little changed Monday after the S&P 500 registered its best week of 2024.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 7 points, trading near flat. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures both also hovered near their respective flatlines.
Stocks are coming off a winning week amid a volatile stretch for equities. The broad S&P 500 rallied 3.9% for its best week since 2023. The Nasdaq Composite and Dow added 5.2% and 2.9%, respectively.
“Much like some of the last recoveries that we’ve had after pullbacks, this was a little game of ‘put the money back where it came from,'” SoFi’s Liz Young Thomas told CNBC on Friday.
She added that the market needed “good news” to begin recovering from the previous week’s rout. That arrived in the form of good retail sales and initial jobless claims data, in addition to earnings results from Walmart.
August had gotten off to a turbulent start after disappointing data fueled recession fears and bolstered concerns that the Federal Reserve was behind the curve on rate cuts. The worries sparked a global sell-off, pushing the S&P 500 on Aug. 5 to record its worst day since 2022.
But fresh data last week seemed to subdue an anxious market and boost hopes that the economy can attain a soft landing scenario. The 12-month inflation rate measured by July’s consumer price index slowed to 2.9% — its lowest reading in more than three years.
Now, Wall Street is looking ahead to Powell’s Jackson Hole, Wyoming, speech on Friday as investors search for more clarity on the outlook for rate cuts. Before then, traders will parse minutes from the Federal Reserve’s most recent meeting due on Wednesday.
The Democratic National Convention also kicks off Monday.
