Not that it really matters
Stock futures rise following S&P 500′s worst week since March 2020
Stock futures rose slightly in overnight trading Sunday, following the S&P 500′s worst week since March 2020, as investors awaited more corporate earnings results and a key policy decision from the Federal Reserve.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 120 points. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.5% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.9%.
The overnight action followed a brutal week on Wall Street in the face of mixed company earnings and worries about rising interest rates. The S&P 500 lost 5.7% last week and closed below its 200-day moving average, a key technical level, for the first time since June 2020. The blue-chip Dow fell 4.6% for its worst week since October 2020. The sell-off in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was even more severe with the benchmark dropping 7.6% last week, notching its fourth straight weekly loss. The index now sits more than 14% below its November record close, falling deeper into correction territory.
The fourth-quarter earnings season has been a mixed bag. While more than 70% of S&P 500 companies that have reported results have topped Wall Street estimates, a couple of key firms let down investors last week, including Goldman Sachs and Netflix.
“What had initially been a stimulus withdrawal-driven decline morphed last week to include earnings jitters,” Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge, said in a note. “So investors are now worried not just about the multiple placed on earnings, but the EPS forecasts themselves.”