Stock futures are trading near flat Monday night as investors tried to shake the previous session’s selloff.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 52 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq-100 futures each gained 0.1%.
Monday’s close marked a negative begin to the trading week. The Nasdaq Composite led the downward charge, dropping 1.93% to finish the session at 11,239.94. The S&P 500 shed 1.79% to finish at 3,998.84, followed by the Dow’s 1.4%, or 482.78 points, slide to 33,947.10.
Higher-than-expected November ISM Services data, which looks on the purchasing level of manufacturers as a gauge the health of the broader economy, pressured equities. That is because investors grew increasingly wary that the Federal Reserve might want to hike rates of interest for longer than previously anticipated to have the intended goal of bringing down inflation.
The discharge aligns with the payrolls report late last week in pointing to a resilient economy. But those pieces add to what Dan Greenhaus, chief strategist at Solus Alternative Asset Management, called a more “mixed” bag of information that is given investors conflicting signals in regards to the state of the economy.
Market observers are still largely expecting a 50 basis point increase to rates of interest on the Fed’s December meeting. But Greenhaus said investors are conflicted how on long the central bank’s rate of interest mountain climbing campaign might want to last, especially given the recent data showing the economy stays strong in some areas.
“From a markets standpoint, I feel you are still wrestling with the times of moving past the times of 75 basis point hikes,” Greenhaus said on CNBC”s “Closing Bell: Time beyond regulation.” “And now you are really specializing in, ‘How high do we actually should go to bring all of the inflation down?'”
Investors will sit up for data Tuesday morning on international trade for insight into the strength of the U.S. and global economy. Later within the day, they may look ahead to post-bell earnings reports from Smith & Wesson and Stitch Fix.
