U.S. stock futures ticked up Tuesday, suggesting the New Year’s strong start will continue ahead of fresh data on manufacturing and the labor market.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 added 0.3% after the broad-market index closed up 0.6% and notched a record on Monday. Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq-100 futures also climbed 0.3% Tuesday.
Stocks have continued their upward march in 2022 after the S&P 500 closed 27% higher last year, while investors are continuing to assess data on the spread of the Omicron variant.Cases hit a record in the U.S.and hospitalizations are rising but remain below pandemic peaks, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
“The mildness of Omicron and therefore, potential for less disruption, less lockdown measures—all of these should feed directly into earnings expectations,” said James Athey, an investment manager at Abrdn.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note ticked up to 1.630% from 1.628% on Monday.
Purchasing managers’ surveys on the manufacturing sector for December are slated to be released at 10 a.m. ET. Economists expect a slowdown in growth, forecasting that supply-chain issues may have constrained U.S. factories.
The Labor Department is scheduled to put out a survey on job openings and turnover for November, also at 10 a.m. The previous month’s data showed there were 3.6 million more job openings than people looking for work, highlighting the tight labor market.
In earnings, furniture company MillerKnoll and wireless computing firm Smart Global Holdings are expected to post their results Tuesday after markets close.
In premarket trading,Apple shares climbed 0.5% to $182.93, pointing to a market capitalization topping $3 trillion for a second consecutive day. Some travel stocks also advanced premarket, with Carnival rising 2.5% and Royal Caribbean up 1.8%.
Oil prices edged up ahead of an OPEC+ meeting scheduled for Tuesday where energy ministers are expected to decide whether to proceed with planned output increases. Global benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.5% to $79.38 a barrel.
Bitcoin stabilized after a two-day fall, edging up 0.8% compared with its level at 5 p.m. ET Monday. It traded around $46,400, down 32% from its all-time high in November.
Overseas, the pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 added 0.6%. European airline stocks jumped, with International Consolidated Airlines rising 10%,Wizz Airadvancing 11% andRyanairup 9%.
In currency markets, the Turkish lira depreciated 1% to 13.3 to the dollar. The currency has fluctuated wildly in recent weeks as investors have assessed government measures aimed at stabilizing the economy. The Japanese yen weakened 0.5% against the dollar to a five-year low.
“The yen has really fallen off, that’s classical weakness based on investor appetite to take risk,” said Gregory Perdon, co-chief investment officer at Arbuth not Latham.“People are buying equities, buying high yield [bonds]—that’s the market tone.”
In Asia, major benchmarks were mixed. The Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.2%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged up 0.1%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 1.8% as the weaker yen drew investors to the country’s stock market. The S&P/ASX 200 Index rallied 2%, hitting a four-month high on Australia’s first trading day of the year.