Investing.com – Wall Street futures pointed to a slightly higher open, suggesting U.S. stocks may hit fresh record highs on Monday, as Chinese data buoyed stock sentiment and investors kept an eye on earnings stateside.
The blue-chip Dow futures rose 20 points, or 0.09%, at 7:02AM ET (11:02GMT), the S&P 500 futures advanced 2 points, or 0.08%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures gained 11 points, or 0.18%.
A stronger-than-expected second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) reading out overnight from China helped to buoy bullish sentiment in equities on Monday.
The world’s second largest economy grew 6.9% in the April to June period, beating expectations for the expansion to ease to 6.8%.
Other Chinese data for June such as retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment all beat consensus, rising more than expected.
The upbeat news kept U.S. stock futures in the black on Monday, while global equities hovered near record highs. The S&P closed at a record high on Friday, while the Dow hit a fresh all-time intraday high.
On a light day for economic data out in the U.S., attention will focus on the NY Empire State manufacturing index to be released at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT) Monday.
Investors began to turn eyes to earnings after JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) fired the unofficial starting gun for the second quarter reporting season last Friday.
Of the 30 S&P firms that had reported as of the end of last week, 80% have beat profit estimates on 15.2% growth while 83% topped consensus with sales growth of 6.0%, according to The Earnings Scout.
Amid a small handful of earnings on Monday, BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) gave disappointing news as the world’s largest asset manager missed on both the top and bottom line.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) will garner the market’s attention after the close on Monday as investors wait to see how the internet TV network’s bet on original content will affect subscription growth.
Meanwhile, oil prices wavered on Monday, passing back and forth between gains and losses in choppy trade, as investors took a breather from last week’s rally that saw U.S. crude pocket gains of nearly 5%.
Despite recent gains, concerns over rising global supplies remained on investors' minds.
U.S. drillers added two oil rigs in the week to July 14, energy services company Baker Hughes announced on Friday. This brings the total count up to 765, the most since April 2015, underlining concern that the ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production is derailing efforts by other major producers to rebalance the market.
U.S. crude futures slipped 0.04% to $46.52 by 7:04AM ET (11:04GMT), while Brent oil traded up 0.14% to $48.98.