Text size
Commuters exit from the Wall Street subway station in New York.
Amir Hamja/Bloomberg
Stock futures were signaling a higher start for Wall Street on Monday after the S&P 500 rallied on Friday to avoid closing in a bear market.
Contracts linked to the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
gained 144 points, or 0.4%,
S&P 500
futures were rising 0.4% and
Nasdaq
futures rose 0.3%.
The S&P 500 closed Friday at 3,901, up 0.01%. It had swung to as low as 3,810 during the session. The S&P 500 has to close below 3,837 — 20% below its peak in January — for it to officially be in a bear market. The index fell 3% last week and has declined for seven straight weeks. The Dow slumped 2.9% last week, extending its weekly losing streak to eight, and the Nasdaq dropped 3.8%.
Giving a lift to futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq on Monday was a report that said
Broadcom
(ticker: AVGO) was in advanced talks to acquire
VMware
(VMW). The Wall Street Journal said the technology companies were discussing a cash-and-stock deal that could come soon. If the deal is completed it would be one of the year’s biggest. VMWare has a market capitalization of about $40 billion.
VMware shares rose 18.3% to $113.20 in premarket trading Monday. Broadcom fell 2.3%.
Comments from President Joe Biden that he was considering reducing tariffs on China also was lifting market sentiment. The tariffs were imposed by the Trump administration.
Investors this week will be monitoring the minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting to gauge the…
..
