Traders are working on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) floor on August 3, 2021.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Futures U.S. stock markets opened slightly higher Tuesday night after the S&P 500 hit a seven-month streak of wins in August.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 36 points, 0.10%. Futures S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were up 0.11% and 0.05%, respectively.
In regular trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 39.11 points, or 0.11%, to close at 35,360.73. The S&P 500 lost 0.13% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.04%.
All major averages ended more in August. The S&P 500 rose 2.9% during the month, rising for the seventh consecutive month. The Nasdaq Composite gained about 4% and, although the Dow lagged behind, it still added 1.2%.
Some strategists are pending a correction in September, as stocks have not had any significant ones since last October, combined with the expected Federal Reserve Bank meeting in September and continued concern over the variant of the Covid delta.
“While this bullish market has laughed at almost every sign of concern in 2021, let’s not forget that September is historically the worst month of the year for stocks,” said Ryan Detrick, chief strategist of LPL financial market. “Even last year, in the face of a large concentration outside the March 2020 lows, we saw a correction of almost 10% in mid-September.”
He added that any weakness could be short-term and included in the range of 5-8%.
“This bullish market is alive and we would be aware and see that any potential weakness is an opportunity,” he said.
Investors are focusing on US non-farm payroll data for August, which will be released later this week, to know the possible path of the Fed’s monetary policy. Dow Jones economists predict that 750,000 jobs will be created in August and the unemployment rate fell to 5.2%.
Campbell Soup is scheduled to report earnings before Wednesday. Brown-Forman will report after the bell.