U.S. equity futures moved higher on Sunday evening after comments from President Donald Trump indicating that negotiations with Iran would begin on Monday, and as technology stocks looked to recover from sharp losses over the month of July.
By 20:41 ET (00:41 GMT), S&P 500 Futures were up 0.4% at 7,551.50 points. Nasdaq 100 Futures gained 0.65%, trading at 28,589.50 points, while Dow Jones Futures rose 0.39% to 52,835.0 points.
The uptick in futures built on a positive session on Wall Street on Friday, where month-end bargain buying - particularly into technology names - helped support markets. That momentum, however, comes after a difficult month for tech, which weighed on major indexes during July.
Diplomatic developments and market reaction
President Trump told reporters on Sunday evening that negotiations with Iran were scheduled to begin on Monday afternoon, and he characterized a deal involving the Strait of Hormuz as "imminent." The remarks followed a decision by the president the previous day to cancel a large planned attack on Iran after talks with regional mediators.
Those developments - the canceled attack and the announcement that talks would start - have raised some hopes for de-escalation in the U.S.-Iran confrontation, which had included a string of reciprocal attacks since mid-July. Energy markets reacted quickly: oil prices fell nearly 5% early-Monday following the president's comments, a move that also boosted prospects for reduced energy-driven inflation in coming months.
Technology and earnings in focus
Technology stocks have been attempting to claw back some losses seen through July, with several upbeat second-quarter results providing support. The NASDAQ Composite fell 3.2% last month, while the S&P 500 and the Dow posted only modest gains for the same period.
Market attention this week will turn to a string of second-quarter earnings reports. Palantir Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:PLTR) was scheduled to report later in the day, while Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) was set to report on Tuesday. SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) was also slated to publish its first ever publicly released quarterly earnings on Tuesday. Other large companies reporting this week include Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), and McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD).
Economic data and policy implications
Beyond corporate results, traders are watching Friday's nonfarm payrolls release for July, which is expected to show a pick-up in employment growth. Strength in the labor market could give the Federal Reserve additional scope to raise interest rates. At the Fed's July meeting held last week, a larger number of policymakers expressed support for raising rates to tame persistent inflation.
Bottom line
Sunday's policy-related remarks and the easing in oil prices provided a lift to futures and helped soften some of the pressure on technology names after a challenging July. Investors will be parsing a busy calendar of corporate earnings and a closely watched payrolls print this week for further signals on growth, inflation, and the likely path of monetary policy.