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US stock futures rose following a record-setting week for the Dow, with tech and hardware stocks driving the gains.
Futures linked to the S&P 500 (ES=F) rose 0.5% as contracts tied to the Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) jumped 1.4%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) traded flat
Last week saw strong gains across the three major gauges with the Dow (^DJI) climbing just shy of 2% to post a close only slightly under 53,000. The S&P (^GSPC) and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) both also made gains around the 2% mark.
A blistering first half of the year has set expectations high for the stock market in Q3 and beyond. Gains in the tech sector have laid the groundwork for momentum to continue despite a faltering of heavyweight semiconductor stock names at the end of June. Micron Technology (MU) dropped 19% over the course of last week.
Despite the rocky sector, analysts continue to see upside ahead, speaking to Yahoo Finance, Baird investment strategist Ross Mayfield said:
“There’s a lot working, it’s a bull market driven by earnings and liquidity, and those are the kind of things that can keep this going into the 2nd half of the year, and probably, in my opinion, into 2027 as well.”
AI continues to drive discussions around future market moves, with JPMorgan analysts recently upping their year-end forecast for the S&P 500 to 7,800 by year-end.
However, AI stock concentration has now reached the same level that resulted in the bursting of previous bubbles, with the “AI Big 10” making up 41% of the S&P 500, similar to the share of tech and telecom during the dot-com bubble.
Investors have a raft of economic data on the way this week following a disappointing June jobs report. Monday see’s a slew of index readings from S&P Global and the Institute of Supply Management to offer insight into the US service economy. The release of the minutes from the Fed’s first meeting with Kevin Warsh at the head is due Wednesday.
