LONDON: Stock futures indicated a slow start for Wall Street on Monday, as oil prices climbed and investors digested comments from a Federal Reserve member who once again pushed for a rate-hike delay to 2016.
But analysts were also upbeat that the S&P 500 can continue to build on recent highs.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average YMM5, -0.07% rose 2 points to 18,231, while those for the S&P 500 index ESM5, -0.15% were largely flat at 2,117.25. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 index NQM5, -0.23% dipped 6.75 points to 4,482.
The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.08% hit a record high of 2,122.73 on Friday, after a string of weaker-than-expected economic data raised doubt about the timing of the Fed’s ability to raise interest rates, possibly pushing that first move further out. The index gained 0.3% last week.
Fed Chicago President Charles Evans repeated his stance on Monday that the central bank should hold back from raising short-term interest rates this year. “It likely will not be appropriate to begin raising the fed funds rate until sometime in early 2016,” he said in a speech prepared for delivery in Stockholm.
Evans said weak first-quarter data is giving him “pause,” and he’d like to see “conformation that they are indeed a transitory aberration.” See the full text of his speech here.
