By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening mixed Monday, trading in narrow ranges just below record levels, with investors digesting Friday’s payrolls ahead of a key inflation report later this week.
At 7:05 AM ET (1205 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 30 points, or 0.1%, while S&P 500 Futures traded 3 points, or 0.1%, lower and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 35 points, or 0.3%.
The major indices closed higher Friday, after last week’s employment report showed that 559,000 nonfarm jobs were added in May. While this was slightly less than expected, it will have alleviated the pressure on the Federal Reserve to rein in its easy monetary policies while still indicating a recovering economy.
The broad-based S&P 500 index lies just 0.2% from its intraday record high set in May, and climbed 0.6% last week to its highest level since May 7, bringing its 2021 gains to more than 12%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and NASDAQ Composite also posted gains last week, and are also up 13% and 7% this year, respectively.
The economic data slate is largely empty Monday, and the main focus will be on Thursday’s May CPI release for clues of Federal Reserve thinking, especially after April’s 4.2% shock.
In corporate news, the major tech giants will be in the spotlight after the seven major industrialized nations agreed on a corporate tax deal to try and raise more cash from multinational companies such as Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) will also be in focus after CEO Elon Musk announced, via Twitter, that the electric car manufacturer had ended the planned production of Model S Plaid Plus, the most expensive variant of its flagship sedan.
Additionally, the so-called meme stocks, like GameStop (NYSE:GME), AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) and BlackBerry (NYSE:BB), will likely remain volatile after hefty gains over the last week.
Crude oil prices weakened Monday, slipping from fresh multi-year highs as traders banked profits ahead of the restart of talks between Iran and world powers later in the week over a nuclear deal.
By 7:05 AM ET, U.S. crude was down 0.4% at $69.36 a barrel, after earlier touching $70 for the first time since October 2018. Brent was down 0.5% at $71.56, after earlier hitting $72.26, the highest since May 2019.
A 14.6% year-on-year drop in China's crude oil imports in May, released earlier Monday, weighed on prices, but most market participants are concentrating on the fresh set of talks between Iran and global powers in Vienna over a nuclear accord, starting on Thursday.
A successful conclusion could include Washington lifting economic sanctions on Iranian oil exports, potentially resulting in 500,000 to 1 million barrels of crude per day reentering the global market.
Elsewhere, gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,888.35/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.2157.