Stock futures stabilized after the Dow, S&P 500 hit new highs

Futures contracts related to major U.S. stock indices remained stable during the evening session on Sunday evening, suggesting that Wall Street could see trading off Monday after breaking records last week.

Dow futures lost 2 points, while contracts tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 also varied little.

The lukewarm futures market movement on Sunday followed another record close for the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday, when it gained close to 300 points to finish at 33,800.6. The S&P 500 gained 0.8% and reached its third consecutive closed record.

Stocks tied to the recovering economy led to many of last week’s gains as vaccination efforts in the United States accelerated. Both the Dow and the S&P 500 climbed at least 2% last week. The Nasdaq rose 3.1% during the same period that some retailers got big tech names, with Apple gaining more than 8% and Amazon and Alphabet gaining more than 6% each.

The first quarter earnings reporting season begins this week, with expectations for generally positive news and an upward trend for U.S. equities thanks to a recovering economy. Many of the country’s largest banks, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, will report this week on the results for the three months ended March 31.

Next week is also full of Federal Reserve speeches and key economic data, including an early reading on inflation on Tuesday, when the consumer price index is released.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell begins a week of several Fed appearances with an interview on Sunday evening at “60 Minutes.” He also speaks Wednesday at a Washington Economic Club event.

“A positive fiscal shock, strong tailwinds on housing, big savings and the Fed letting inflation exceed 2% marks a fundamentally different economic context,” the equity strategy wrote in an email Evercore ISI “US data is expected to be strong this week and US vaccinations to rise. Real rates are still too negative and are heading higher, which supports overcoming the risk factor.”

Investors will also oversee President Joe Biden’s effort to move forward with a major infrastructure proposal known as the American Jobs Plan. Biden, who along with other Democrats promised a major infrastructure overhaul in the 2020 election, will meet Monday with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to try to convince Capitol Hill to raise the $ 2 trillion package.

Congress will return to Washington this week and will be in session for the first time since Biden debuted his proposal, which spends hundreds of millions of dollars on roads, bridges, airports, broadband, electric vehicles, housing and job training.

The president’s plan would also raise the corporate tax rate to 28% and crack down on other tax evasion strategies abroad.