Futures are gaining ahead of the shortened Black Friday session via Reuters
Written by Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal
(Reuters) – U.S. stock futures rose ahead of a reduced trading session on Black Friday, with Wall Street’s main indexes set for monthly gains as the holiday shopping season gets underway, turning the spotlight on retail stocks.
Investors will scrutinize stocks of retailers expected to lure millions of shoppers with their deep Black Friday discounts, as shoppers begin their holiday shopping.
I National Retail (NYSE:) Federation, an American trade group, expects about 85.6 million shoppers to visit stores this year, up from 76 million on Black Friday in 2023.
Shares of The target (NYSE: ) rose 0.7%, TJX (NYSE: ) rose 0.5%, Walmart (NYSE: ) rose 0.2% and Nike (NYSE: ) added 0.5% in market trade.
“This promotional event is a mixed blessing for retailers. It sparks a frenzy of shopping for good cash that almost three-quarters of people will stop spending before the event,” said Susannah Streeter, head. of money and markets at Hargreaves (LON:) Lansdowne.
“During the promotion, it also means selling at a discount… (which) means a smaller profit margin at a time when they are being pressured by rising labor costs.”
At 07:06 am, the Dow E-minis were up 172 points, or 0.38%, the E-minis were up 17.75 points, or 0.30%, and the E-minis were up points 69.25, or 0.33%.
Futures trailing the small-cap index rose 1%.
Wall Street’s main indexes closed lower on Wednesday, ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, after data showed signs of inflation sticking, reinforcing bets the US Federal Reserve could remain cautious on interest rate cuts in 2025.
The three major indexes were on track for monthly gains, with the benchmark S&P set for its biggest one-month gain since February. Smaller-cap tracking stocks hit a record high earlier in the week and were expected to rise every month so far this year.
President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election earlier this month, and his Republican Party winning both houses of Congress, provided the latest demographic boost.
Investors were pricing in prices on expectations that Trump’s policies on tax cuts, tariffs and deregulation could boost economic growth and corporate performance. However, concerns remained that the policies could also increase price pressure, delay the pace of Fed policy easing and moderate global growth.
Traders expected the central bank to cut borrowing costs by 25 basis points at its December meeting, but saw it holding off on rate cuts in January and March, according to CME Group’s (NASDAQ: ) FedWatch.
Speaking about Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on the country’s top trading partners, President Joe Biden said he hoped the president-elect would reconsider his plan, saying it could “redeem” the United States’ relations with its allies.
Crypto stocks were up as bitcoin rose 2.3%, trading around $97,000. MicroStrategyO> rose 4.7%, MARA Holdings added 1.9%, and Bit Digital advanced 3.8%.
Applied Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ) fell 72% after the US Food and Drug Administration refused to approve its drug to treat a rare genetic disease.
Analysts expect stock movements to be affected by thin volumes after Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday.
