U.S. stock futures slipped early Monday as investors returned from the holiday weekend and began digesting an important week ahead.
Futures on the S&P 500 pointed 0.2% lower, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures were 0.2% down in early premarket trading. All three major indexes secured a fourth consecutive week of gains Friday in a shortened week’s trading.
While earnings will be in focus for the early part of the week, investors may have to wait until Thursday for the most significant data–the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation metric. The core personal-consumption expenditures (PCE) index for October will give a key indication of how the central bank’s battle against inflation is progressing.
Economists expect core PCE to rise 3.5% year over year, down from 3.7% in September. A slowdown is likely to cement market expectations that the Fed is done hiking rates.
Before that, there’s a second estimate of third-quarter gross domestic growth–after the previous 4.9% estimate, the fastest rate since 2021.
Cyber Monday, the online cousin of Black Friday, will also be closely watched for signs of how strong, or otherwise, the consumer is in the holiday period. Black Friday online sales hit a record $9.8 billion, a 7.5% increase year over year, according to Adobe data.
“For now, consumers still appear to be flexing considerable spending muscle, according to early indications of Black Friday sales,” Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter said.
Earnings season is coming to a close but it’s still going to be a busy few days for company reports. Zscaler will report Monday, before Intuit, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, CrowdStrike and VMware release earnings Tuesday.
Snowflake, Dollar Tree, Foot Locker, Dell Technologies, and Kroger are all set to report earnings later in the week.