Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Aug. 4, 2022.
Source: NYSE
Stock futures were fell in overnight trading Sunday after the S&P 500 reached a new 2023 high following a five-week win streak.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 futures were both down 0.02% and 0.17%. Nasdaq 100 futures inched 0.37% lower..
Shares of Alaska Airlines declined more than 1% in overnight trading after news that it agreed to acquire rival Hawaiian Airlines in a $1.9 billion deal. The move marks an effort for both carriers to expand along the West Coast.
The large-cap equity index soared to the highest level since March 2022 on Friday, bringing its year-to-date gains to almost 20%. The blue-chip Dow has also advanced for five weeks straight and is up 9.4% for the year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has popped 37% in 2023.
The latest leg up came as investors increasingly bet that the Federal Reserve will stay put at its policy meeting this month and start cutting rates next year. The market turned a blind eye to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s effort to tame rate-cut expectations, saying it’s “premature” to anticipate easing in policy.
Some investors see the rally as unsustainable.
“At present things are very overdone,” Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge, said in a note. “The conversation on inflation, growth, the Fed, and earnings are all too binary, reductive, and facile.”
November was the best month for the 30-stock Dow since October 2022. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both enjoyed their biggest monthly gains since July 2022.
Investors are awaiting the November jobs report, scheduled for release on Friday, for confirmation the Fed is done hiking rates. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect the economy to have added 190,000 payrolls.
