- Dow Jones futures rise ahead of a shortened holiday week.
- Wall Street gained due to renewed optimism over AI-related shares.
- Traders may adopt caution amid the Federal Reserve’s measured policy stance.
Dow Jones futures gain 0.14% to trade above 48,500 during Monday’s European session, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also advance, edging up 0.35% and 0.53% to roughly 6,910 and 25,700, respectively. However, volumes are expected to remain light as trading enters a holiday-shortened week ahead of Christmas.
US index futures move higher after Wall Street posted strong gains in the previous session, led by outperforming technology stocks. On Friday’s regular session, the Dow Jones rose 0.38%, the S&P 500 advanced 0.88%, and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.31%, with megacaps extending gains amid renewed optimism surrounding AI-related shares.
Market sentiment may turn cautious amid the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) measured policy outlook. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said on Sunday that policy is well-positioned to pause and assess the impact of 75-basis-point rate cuts on the economy during the first quarter, according to Bloomberg.
The CME FedWatch tool indicated a 78.0% probability of rates being held at the Fed’s January meeting, up from 75.6% a week earlier. Meanwhile, the likelihood of a 25-basis-point rate cut has fallen to 22.0% from 24.4% a week ago.
Traders are also awaiting United States (US) Q3 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data, corporate profits, and industrial production, after last week’s data fueled expectations of further Fed rate cuts next year.
