Investing.com – U.S. futures pointed to a higher opening bell on Monday after the Senate passed a tax bill over the weekend, increasing investor optimism.
The S&P 500 futures rose 16 points or 0.61% as of 6:54 AM ET (11:54 AM GMT) while Dow futures surged to the triple digits at 226 points or 0.93% Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures increased 31 points or 0.50%.
Senate Republicans narrowly passed a bill in the early hours of Saturday morning, with 51 to 49 in favor of the tax overhaul. Congress still faces obstacles before the bill can become law and now must create a joint House and Senate bill, which will then be sent to President Donald Trump.
Financial stocks were among the biggest movers in pre-market trading, with Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) PLC ADR (NYSE:LYG) rising 0.85% and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) surging 2.56% while ING Group NV ADR (NYSE:ING) increased 0.36%.
CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) Group was down 1.79% in pre-market trading after news that the retail pharmacy company was buying U.S. health insurer Aetna (NYSE:AET) for $69 billion. The deal would be one of the biggest mergers of 2017. Aetna meanwhile was up 2.18%.
Elsewhere telecommunications firm Nokia (HE:NOKIA) slipped 3.43% while medical device company Mazor Robotics Ltd (NASDAQ:MZOR) fell 6.88% and optical telecommunications firm Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ:FNSR) was down 1.71%.
In economic news, factory orders is set to be released at 10:00 AM ET (3:00 PM GMT).
In Europe stocks were up. Germany’s DAX surged 173 points or 1.35% while in France the CAC 40 increased 61 points or 1.15% and in London, the FTSE 100 was up 32 points or 0.45%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 rose 41 points or 1.16% while Spain’s IBEX 35 rallied 116 points or 1.15%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.52% to $1,275.60 a troy ounce while crude oil futures was down 1.08% to $57.73 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, inched forward 0.34% to 93.13.