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Wall Street rose modestly before the bell, with the Dow still above 40,000
Wall Street pointed to modest gains Monday morning, keeping markets hovering around record levels after the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 40,000 for the first time last week.
Markets appeared shaken by news of the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and other officials who died in a helicopter accident in the mountains northwestern region of Iran on Sunday.
S&P 500 futures were up nearly 0.2% before the bell Monday, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up less than 0.1%.
This week, investors will receive more data on retail earnings as the reporting season ends. Lowe’s, Target and TJX Cos. will report later this week. The same will happen with chipmaker Nvidia, whose shares are up 87% this year on a high demand for its semiconductorswhich are used to power artificial intelligence applications.
Red Lobster filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection days after closing dozens of restaurants. Earlier this year, Red Lobster co-owner Thai Union Group, one of the world’s largest seafood suppliers, announced its intention to exit its minority investment in the restaurant chain.
The seafood restaurant has struggled with rising rent and labor costs in recent years and with promotions like the all-you-can-eat shrimp deal backfiring.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve releases the minutes of its most recent meeting, when it dropped its key lending rate for the sixth consecutive time.
A report last week rekindled hopes that inflation is finally coming back in the right direction after a discouraging start to the year. This, in turn, revived hopes that the Federal Reserve reduced its main interest rate at least once this year.
The federal funds rate is at its highest level in more than two decades, and a cut would raise investment prices and eliminate some of the downward pressure on the economy.
The hope is that the Fed can strike a balance of slowing the economy enough through high interest rates to end high inflation, but not so much that it triggers a serious recession.
In Europe at midday, Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.3%, Germany’s DAX rose 0.4%, as did the CAC 40 in Paris.
China market extended last week’s gains after central bank announcement new support for the real estate industry, including reducing required down payments on home loans, reducing mortgage interest rates for first and second home purchases, and removing the mortgage rate floor.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.3% to 19,608.30, with its property index rising 0.3%. Country Garden Holdings, one of many developers in financial trouble, saw its US-listed shares rise 18.5% on Friday following the policy announcement.
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The Shanghai Composite index rose 0.5% to 3,171.15.
On Monday, China’s central bank kept the key interest rate on one-year and five-year loans unchanged at 3.45% and 3.95%, in line with expectations. The one-year LPR serves as a benchmark for most new and outstanding loans in China, while the five-year rate affects the price of home mortgages.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index rose 0.7% to 39,069.68. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6% to 7,863.70. The Kospi in Korea rose 0.6% to 2,742.14.
Elsewhere, Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.1% after Lai Ching-te was sworn in as the new president of Taiwan. Lai is expected to defend the island’s policy of de facto independence from China and seek to strengthen its defenses against Beijing, which claims the island as Chinese territory.
In Bangkok, the SET rose 0.1%.
In other trading Monday, benchmark U.S. crude fell 27 cents to $79.31 per barrel. US crude oil has not been above $80 per barrel since falling below that level on May 1.
Brent crude, the international standard, lost 23 cents to $83.75 per barrel.
The US dollar rose to 155.73 Japanese yen from 155.55 yen. The euro rose to $1.0865 from $1.0871.
On Friday, the Dow rose 0.3% to 40,003.59, while the S&P 500 rose 0.1%, closing out its fourth straight week of gains. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.1% to 16,685.97.