Investing.com – U.S. Futures pointed to higher opening bell on Monday as investors look ahead to Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s first Congressional testimony later in the week.
The S&P 500 futures rose 10 points or 0.38% to 2,759.25 as of 6:43 AM ET (11:43 GMT) while Dow futures increased 161 points or 0.64% to 25,475.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was up 19 points or 0.28% to 6,929.0.
Powell is expected to speak before before congressional committees on Tuesday and Thursday. Investors will pay close attention to comments on his views on the recent uptick in inflation and how that can affect the current rate-hiking path.
Meanwhile, traders will be watching for comments from two Fed officials due to speak on Monday. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard is due to give a speech on the economy and monetary policy at the National Association of Business Economics in Washington, D.C., at 8:00 AM ET (13:00 GMT). Fed Vice Chairman Randall Quarles will speak at the same venue at 3:15 PM ET (20:15 GMT).
Telecommunications firm Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) was among the biggest gainers in pre-market trading, rising 2.24% while Nokia (HE:NOKIA) Corp was up 2.07% and Micro Focus increased 2.00%. Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP). inched up 0.57% while Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) surged 1.13%.
Elsewhere toymaker Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT) fell 3.85% after its stock was cut to underperform from hold. TAL Education was down 6.05% and online IT firm LivePerson Inc decreased 1.75%.
In economic news, new home sales figures are released at 10:00AM ET (15:00 GMT).
In Europe stocks were up. Germany’s DAX rose 41 points or 0.33% while in France the CAC 40 increased 29 points or 0.55% and in London, the FTSE 100 was up 55 points or 0.24%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 gained 22 points or 0.66% while Spain’s IBEX 35 surged 46 points or 0.47%.
In commodities, gold futures were up 0.78% to $1,340.70 a troy ounce while crude oil futures fell 0.16% to $63.45 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.32% to 89.52.