U.S. stock futures steady after Wall Street rally

Futures rose after Wall Street rallied on Friday, reversing a bulk of recent losses as investors ratcheted up bets that the Fed will cut interest rates in September

 U.S. stock index futures steadied on Sunday evening after Wall Street rallied sharply on dovish comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, which heralded interest rate cuts in the near-term.

Focus this week is squarely on earnings from AI major NVIDIA Corporation for more cues on the fast-growing industry.

Futures rose after Wall Street rallied on Friday, reversing a bulk of recent losses as investors ratcheted up bets that the Fed will cut interest rates in September.

But technology shares still remained fragile following a sharp selldown through most of last week, with caution ahead of Nvidia expected to keep the sector subdued.

S&P 500 Futures were flat at 6,483.25 points, while Nasdaq 100 Futures were steady at 23,572.0 points by 23:17 GMT. Dow Jones Futures hovered around 45,711.0 points.

Powell, speaking at the Jackson Hole Symposium on Friday, said the central bank could possibly cut rates in September amid growing risks to the labour market.

But the Fed Chair cautioned that the decision was not set in stone, especially as risks from inflation remained. Fed policymakers have repeatedly cited uncertainty over the inflationary impact of President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.

Still, Powell’s comments were relatively dovish when compared to recent signalling from the Fed, and saw markets ramp up bets on a September rate cut. Wall Street indexes also rose sharply after his comments, reversing most of last week’s losses.

The S&P 500 gained 1.5% to 6,466.91 points on Friday. The NASDAQ Composite added 1.9% to 21,496, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1.9% to a record-high 45,631.74 points.

Fed fund futures prices showed markets pricing in an 82.9% chance the Fed will lower rates by 25 bps in September, up from the prior day’s possibility of 73.1%, according to CME Fedwatch.

Focus this week is squarely on second-quarter earnings from AI major NVIDIA Corporation, which are due on Wednesday.

Outside Nvidia, Dell Technologies Inc, Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc, Best Buy Co Inc, Dollar General Corporation, and Abercrombie & Fitch Company are also set to report earnings this week.

Second-quarter GDP data is also on tap this week, coming after preliminary data released in late-July showed strong growth.