Building on yesterday’s all-time record high close for the Dow Industrials, US index futures are pointing toward another higher open today with Dow futures up 0.3% and NASDAQ futures up 1.9%. Over in Europe today, Milan is up 1.1%, Frankfurt is up 0.2% and London is flat. Commodity prices are on the rise again with WTIO crude oil up 1.4%, copper up 2.1% and platinum up 2.0%.
Investors have been responding favorably to comments from the European Central Bank this morning, recognizing that rising treasury yields could hinder an economic recovery, and indicating that it plans to step up asset purchases under its current program in order to keep a lid on interest rates. Investors are now awaiting ECB President Lagarde’s press conference for more color. On this news, the US 10-year treasury note yield has slipped back toward 1.50% and the US Dollar has slipped back about 0.3% against the Euro and the Canadian Dollar, 0.6% against gold and 1.0% against silver.
On the first anniversary of the WHO declaring COVID-19 a pandemic, US President Biden is giving a live prime-time speech at 8:00 pm EST this evening where he is expected to speak about the government’s next phase plans for dealing with the pandemic now that the latest $1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus package has passed Congress and is awaiting Presidential signoff, which could potentially influence sentiment through the end of the week.
In other news this morning, Oracle is down 5.4% in premarket trading despite a positive earnings report (EPS $1.16 vs street $1.11, 33% dividend increase, increased share buyback program). US weekly jobless claims were slightly better than expected (712K vs street 725K).
