Stock futures rise after a rollercoaster week, investors await key earnings reports

Stock futures traded higher early on Monday as investors awaited big earnings reports to roll in.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 277 points, or 0.9%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 1.1% and 1.3% higher, respectively.

Monday’s moves came as the British pound rose on more policy reversals from the UK government. Prime Minister Liz Truss canceled a tax-cut plan and fired her finance minister last week. There was also expectation of another policy U-turn in the UK being announced later on Monday. The pound traded 0.9% higher at $1.127 per U.S. dollar.

The S&P 500 just came off its fourth negative week in five with a 1.6% loss last week. A hotter-than-expected inflation reading stoked wild price swings in the markets as investors readjusted their expectations for the Federal Reserve’s coming rate hikes.

“As inflation remains elevated for longer and the Fed hikes further, the risk increases that the cumulative effect of policy tightening pushes the U.S. economy into recession, undermining the outlook for corporate earnings,” Mark Haefele, CIO at UBS Global Wealth Management, said in a note.

Meanwhile, the third-quarter earnings season has kicked off. Investors are monitoring if corporate America will have any significant downward revisions to their outlooks in the face of stubbornly high inflation and the economic slowdown.

Bank of America is slated to report Monday before the bell, while Goldman Sachs will release numbers Tuesday morning. JPMorgan and Wells Fargo reported solid results last week, while Morgan Stanley’s equity trading revenue disappointed.

Many notable technology names are also reporting this week, including Netflix, Tesla and IBM. Johnson & Johnson, United Airlines, AT&T, Verizon and Procter & Gamble are other big companies on investors’ radar.