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There haven't been many earnings reports ahead of today's open, and there are no notable U.S. economic releases today. Don't let that shortage of news this morning fool you, however. This week is going to be jam-packed with earnings results and economic data, not to mention headlines surrounding trade and tariff negotiations.
It will be a big week. We just don't have any big indications for today's open at the moment.
Currently, the S&P 500 futures are up two points and are trading in-line with fair value, the Nasdaq 100 futures are up five points and are roughly in-line with fair value, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are up 43 points and are trading fractionally above fair value.
The stock market, of course, is coming off a huge week last week, with the S&P 500 surging 4.6% on the back of remarks from Treasury Secretary Bessent that he thinks there will be a de-escalation with China in the near future since the current state of things is unsustainable.
Interestingly, Mr. Bessent said on CNBC this morning that he was surprised the market reacted the way that it did to his comments since they were nothing he hadn't said already; moreover, he said in the same interview that it is up to China to de-escalate since it sells five times more to the U.S. than the U.S. sells to China.
One might be inclined to think that these clarifications would upend the equity futures market, but that hasn't been the case. This goes to show that market participants have grown somewhat accustomed to the volatility of the tariff headlines and that they are hoping to remain inclined to believe that future trade developments will sound (and be) more positive than negative.
It is the new default position, which might mercifully lead to less trading volatility in the absence of any data that indicate the tariff upset is having an adverse economic impact. The economic data in the coming weeks will shed light on that issue.
In the same vein, there will be a lot of light shining this week for market participants with more than 160 S&P 500 companies reporting their quarterly results, including Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META), Apple (AAPL), and Amazon.com (AMZN), and an economic calendar stocked with key reports that include April Consumer Confidence, March JOLTS - Job Openings, Advance Q1 GDP, March Personal Income and Spending, April ISM Manufacturing, and the April Employment Situation Report.
The relative calm today is a nice sight, but there is a lot more to see that will help participants understand if this rebound effort has more legs.
