Stock futures drifted Monday evening following an equity rally to fresh record levels earlier in the day.
Industrials, financials and energy companies led the day’s advances, with the 30-stock Dow ending higher by 1.4% to its first close above 28,000 since February.
The gains came as investors eyed the US Food and Drug Administration’s emergency authorization to use convalescent plasma to treat Covid-19 in hospitalized patients, and a report that the Trump administration was considering fast-tracking approval for a UK experimental coronavirus vaccine. Airlines and other travel and leisure stocks, which investors have come to associate with improving vaccine development and business reopening prospects, steadied in late trading after surging earlier in the day.
After market close on Monday, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that three new companies would be joining the Dow Jones Industrial Average, effective before market open on Monday, Aug. 31. Salesforce.com (CRM) is set to replace Exxon Mobil (XOM), with the oil major having been an index component for nearly a century. Honeywell International (HON) will replace Raytheon Technologies (RTX) and Amgen (AMGN) will replace Pfizer (PFE). Each of the companies joining the index added about 4% in late trading, while those exiting the index declined.
Meanwhile, a handful of software companies filed to go public on Monday, as investor appetite for risk assets – and tech stocks with high-growth potential especially – remained elevated. Among the companies filing was Snowflake, a cloud data platform expected previously speculated to go public this year, following a funding round that valued it at $12.4 billion in February. The company, while unprofitable, posted revenue growth that more than doubled over last year. Other software companies that filed their go-public prospectus on Monday included Unity Software, Sumo Logic and JFrog.
Looking ahead to Tuesday, earnings season will continue with publicly traded software names Autodesk (ADSK), Salesforce (CRM) and Intuit (INTU) poised to report quarterly results. Retailers including Nordstrom (JWN) and Best Buy (BBY) will also deliver quarterly reports Tuesday morning.
—
Here were the main moves in equity markets, as of 6:21 p.m. ET:
-
S&P 500 futures (ES=F): 3,427.75, up 0.25 points or 0.01%
-
Dow futures (YM=F): 28,230.00, down 9 points, or 0.03%
-
Nasdaq futures (NQ=F): 11,639.25, up 3 points, or 0.03%
A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., November 30, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
—
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and reddit.
Find live stock market quotes and the latest business and finance news
For tutorials and information on investing and trading stocks, check out Cashay