U.S. stock index futures were flat to slightly higher early Monday as traders weighed the prospect of further sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine.
After the S&P 500 index posted a third straight week of gains on Friday, evidence of potential war crimes by Russia over the weekend prompted the EU and U.S. to push for new penalties after reports that Russian troops executed unarmed civilians in Ukrainian towns.
What’s happening
- Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average YM00, -0.08% rose 7 points, or less than 0.1%, to 34,725.
- S&P 500 futures ES00, +0.08% were up 7.25 points, or 0.2%, at 4,546.50.
- Nasdaq-100 futures rose 37.50 points, or 0.3%, to trade at 14,901.25.
On Friday, the Dow DJIA, +0.40% logged a 0.1% weekly fall, after back-to-back weekly gains. The S&P 500 SPX, +0.34% eked out a 0.1% gain for the week, while the Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.29% advanced 0.7%, with both logging their third straight weekly gain.
What’s driving the market
Investors were monitoring the latest developments in Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday that Western nations will impose additional sanctions on Russia in the coming days.
In corporate news, shares of Twitter Inc. TWTR, +1.60% jumped more than 20% in premarket trade after a regulatory filing showed that Tesla Inc. TSLA, +0.65% boss Elon Musk had acquired a 9.2% stake in the social-media platform.
Read: Twitter stock rockets after Elon Musk takes stake valued at more than $3 billion
Oil prices CL00, +3.02% pushed higher, bouncing after a sharp drop last week sparked in part by a U.S. announcement of an unprecedented release of strategic reserves to fight rising energy costs.
A worsening COVID outbreak and lockdowns in China also pose a threat to oil demand. Chinese markets were closed Monday for a holiday, while most of Shanghai’s 25 million residents are under some form of Covid lockdown.
Treasury yields TMUBMUSD10Y, 2.384% edged higher early Monday after data Friday suggested the U.S. labor market remains healthy, while the Federal Reserve has begun raising interest rates to tame inflation stoked in part by elevated commodity prices.
The U.S. economy created a healthy 431,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate fell to 3.6% from 3.8%.
“Even as US labor force participation increases, that incremental supply of labor is still insufficient to satisfy demand and wage pressures remain,” Nicholas Colas of DataTrek Research wrote in a note Sunday.
See also: The U.S. jobs market is scorching hot. Here’s where the flames are highest
On Saturday, New York Federal Reserve president, John Williams, said that in addition to raising interest rates again at its May meeting, the Fed may begin reducing its balance sheet to address the level of U.S. inflation that have become “particularly acute”.
“50 basis point FOMC meetings may not end in Q2,” DataTrek’s Colas said. “As it stands right now, there are 50 percent odds baked into Fed Funds Futures that there will be a 50 basis point increase at some point between the July and December meetings.”
On Wednesday the Federal Open Market Committee will publish the minutes from the central bank’s March meeting, giving investors a glimpse of how the Fed viewed market conditions.
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