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U.S. stock index futures pointed to a slightly higher open on Monday as the corporate earnings season got under way.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials gaining 56 points, or 0.2%, to 27,365.
Futures for the S&P 500 hiked 5.75 points, or 0.2%, at 3,021.25
NASDAQ futures picked up 17.25 points, or 0.2%, to 7,877.25
Citigroup reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that topped analyst expectations, sending its shares up around 1%. Gains from the initial public offering of Tradeweb, an electronic bond trading platform, drove the bank’s results past Wall Street estimates.
Other big banks like J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs are expected to report quarterly earnings later this week.
Despite Citigroup’s strong report, the outlook for this earnings season is bleak. Analysts expect S&P 500 earnings to have fallen by 3% in the second quarter.
Monday’s moves come after the major indexes reached record highs last week as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated during congressional testimony that an interest-rate cut could be on the horizon from the central bank. The Dow closed above 27,000 for the first time on Thursday and Friday’s gain brought its increase on the week to 1.5%.
Meanwhile, China’s economic growth slowed to 6.2% in the second-quarter from a year earlier, its weakest pace in at least 27 years, as the trade war with the U.S. took its toll. Still, China’s gross domestic product growth was in line with expectations, and data for industrial production, retail sales, and fixed-asset investment came in above analyst expectations.
Overseas, in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index gained 0.3%, while in Japan, markets were shuttered for holiday.
Oil prices gained 12 cents to $60.33 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices $4.20 to $1,416.40 U.S. an ounce.
