Posted on January - 02 - 2010
Stock futures point to higher open on commodities
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Monday on a jump in crude oil prices and ahead of data expected to show expansion in the manufacturing sector.
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On the first trading day of the year, investors are awaiting November construction spending data and the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index for December, which analysts forecast will rise from the prior month.
“An improvement in the datapoints will be another confirmation of the evidence that we’ve been getting stronger,” said Edward Riley, chief executive of Riley Asset Management in Boston.
“Also, people tend to put more weight on data that comes out in the beginning of the year, so this could have an out-sized influence on trading.”
Russia had halted supplies to Belarussian refineries after failing to resolve an oil pricing dispute, according to traders, but on Monday, the Belarus state oil firm said Russian oil was flowing normally to European Union customers via Belarus. February crude futures gained 2.1 percent to a two-month high.
Also helping commodities was a weak U.S. dollar, which fell 0.5 percent against a basket of currencies.
S&P 500 futures rose 7.3 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 67 points and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 20.50 points.
Shares of Chesapeake Energy Corp gained 5.7 percent to $27.35 in premarket trading after Total SA agreed to pay $2.25 billion for a 25 percent stake in Chesapeake’s Barnett Shale gas fields.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Sunday that vigorous financial regulations would have been the best way to restrain the housing bubble that helped cause the deep recession, but said policymakers can no longer rule out monetary policy to curb the buildup of risk.
Overseas markets traded higher, with both European and Japanese shares hitting 15-month highs.
U.S. markets were closed Friday for New Year’s Day. On Thursday, stocks fell, with the three major indexes down about 1 percent. For 2009, the Dow gained 19 percent, the S&P rose 24 percent, and the Nasdaq added 44 percent.
(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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