After a winning October, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq will look to drive their gains into November.
U.S. stock-index futures gained Sunday, after the major equity benchmarks extended their monthly winning streaks in October.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM00) were up around 130 points, or 0.3%, Sunday evening, while S&P 500 futures (ES00) and Nasdaq-100 futures (NQ00) gained about 0.4%. Bitcoin (BTCUSD) remained in its weeklong malaise, briefly falling below the $110,000 level. Gold futures (GC00) fell along with silver futures (SI00). The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, which compares the buck to a basket of foreign currencies, was about flat.
West Texas crude futures (CL.1) gained about 0.5%. Earlier Sunday, OPEC+ agreed to pause its monthly oil output hikes for the first quarter of 2026, after another modest production increase in December. Crude prices have slumped around 15% year to date amid fears of a global glut, which some experts fear could bring prices crashing to $35 in 2026.
The markets got a boost last week, after the Fed cut interest rates for the second time this year – though appeared more circumspect about a December cut – and largely positive Big Tech earnings, despite astronomical spending on artificial-intelligence infrastructure.
See: Is Big Tech’s soaring AI spending creating a bubble? Here’s what it means for stocks.
Stocks edged higher Friday, as all three major indexes ended the week with gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA rose 0.8% for the week, while the S&P 500 SPX advanced 0.7% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq COMP surged 2.2%. All three benchmarks rose in October, with the Dow and S&P 500 each rising for a sixth straight month, while the Nasdaq advanced for a seventh consecutive month.
Meanwhile, pressure is growing to end the six-week-long government shutdown, as food-stamp benefits expired Saturday – though two federal judges have ordered SNAP benefits to still be paid; millions of Americans start enrolling in healthcare plans for next year, many with soaring costs due to expiring subsidies; and amid warnings of a coming air travel “disaster” as unpaid federal workers, including air-traffic controllers and TSA workers, take time off just as the busy holiday travel season begins.
After deep job cuts announced last week by Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS), and with federal data still hung up by the government shutdown, investors will be closely watching for ISM manufacturing data on Monday, and ADP employment data and ISM services data on Wednesday.
And while most of the “Magnificent Seven” megacap tech companies have already reported quarterly earnings, eyes will be on reports this week from companies including Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR), McDonald’s Corp. (MCD), Warner Bros. Discovery Corp. (WBD) and Qualcomm Corp. (QCOM).
Read more: Corporate America’s hefty profit streak continues amid worries over job market
-Mike Murphy
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