US pre-open: Futures shake off concerns around spike in new Covid-19 cases
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Monday 06 Jul 2020
(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were pointing to solid gains ahead of the bell on Monday with stocks looking set to shake off concerns around the continued rise in new Covid-19 cases across the US.
As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 1.37%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 1.11% and 1.14% firmer, respectively.
The Dow closed 92.39 points higher on Thursday as Wall Street traders prepared to take a breather over the Independence Day long weekend.
Sentiment was boosted by a strong performance by Asian stocks overnight, with the Shanghai Composite surging 5.71% as the country carried on with its economic reopening despite the World Health Organisation reporting on Saturday that more than 200,000 new coronavirus cases had been reported globally in a 24-hour period - a fresh record.
On a regional level, the biggest spike was seen in the Americas, where nearly 130,000 new cases were confirmed - with Florida and Texas reporting record one-day increases of 11,445 and 8,258, respectively. 45,000 new cases were recorded in the US alone on Saturday.
Oanda's Edward Moya said: "Financial markets will continue to overlook the increases with coronavirus cases over 30 states until US fatality numbers surge. Vaccine and treatment hopes are also expected to provide breakthrough updates over the next couple months that could provide better clarity for the second half of 2021.
"The US still does not seem to be in a good position for the second wave in the Fall as contact tracing, social distancing, and avoiding mass gatherings saw many states struggle over the long holiday weekend."
In the corporate space, shares in the likes of Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines were all higher at the open.
Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway purchased natural gas transmission and storage assets from Dominion Energy for roughly $10bn including debt and Uber shares were up ahead of the bell after reportedly reaching an all-stock deal for food delivery service Postmates.
On the macro front, June's composite and services PMIs will be out at 1445 BST, while non-manufacturing data from the ISM will follow at 1500 BST.
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