(Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes were set for a higher open on Monday ahead of key inflation and jobs data this week that will offer more clues on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate path, while China’s measures to boost its markets provided further support.
Stocks ended a volatile session higher on Friday after Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole meet said the U.S. central bank may need to raise interest rates further, but also acknowledged the progress made on easing price pressures.
Focus now shifts to a report on the personal consumption expenditures price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, which is set to be released on Thursday and the non-farm payrolls data due on Friday.
“Investors were looking for perhaps more guidance or hints about the Fed’s next step and unfortunately there were no new thoughts or strategies disclosed,” Peter Andersen, founder of Andersen Capital Management, said.
“The market will probably start off maybe slightly positive, but in a holding pattern until investors can digest these important data releases this week.”
The readings are set to come at a time when surprising strength in the U.S. economy drove up expectations of interest rates staying higher for longer.
Investors are also bracing for a potentially volatile September as the market faces key economic data reports, a Fed meeting and worries over a possible government shutdown during a month of historically muted equity performance.
Traders’ bets of a pause in tightening by the Fed were unchanged for the September meeting, while bets of a 25-basis point interest rate hike in November rose to nearly 48% after Powell’s Jackson Hole remarks from 38% a week earlier, according to CME Group’s (NASDAQ:CME) FedWatch tool.
China halved the stamp duty on stock trading effective Monday, sending U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies, including PDD Holdings, JD (NASDAQ:JD).com, Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) up between 1.6% and 1.9% before the bell.
Yield on the 10-year Treasury note was last down at 4.22%, cushioning major growth stocks, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) up 2.1% and leading the advance.
At 8:23 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 130 points, or 0.38%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 14.75 points, or 0.33%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 64.75 points, or 0.43%.
Among other stocks, 3M jumped 6.1% premarket on a report that the conglomerate has tentatively agreed to pay more than $5.5 billion to resolve over 300,000 lawsuits claiming it sold the U.S. military defective combat earplugs.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese EV maker Xpeng (NYSE:XPEV) gained 5.6% after the company said it would buy Didi’s electric car development business in a deal worth up to $744 million.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission suspended its challenge of Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN)’s $27.8 billion purchase of Horizon Therapeutics (NASDAQ:HZNP). Horizon Therapeutics’ shares rose 5.4%.
