Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., Aug. 24, 2026.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stock futures were near the flatline on Monday night following a losing session, though the major U.S. benchmarks still managed to post monthly advances.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures advanced 25 points. S&P 500 futures were up less than 0.1%. Nasdaq-100 futures were marginally lower.
The S&P 500 advanced 2.6% in August, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 3.9% in that time. The Dow climbed 1.3% for the month, its fifth straight monthly advance.
However, Wall Street ended the month on a sour note. The Dow dropped more than 370 points in regular trading, as oil prices climbed — pushing rates higher — following the U.S. striking two rocket launchers on Iran’s Larak Island. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also fell on the day.
“Despite trading less than 115bps from ATHs going into today’s session, the market is exhibiting signs of nervousness across myriad of indicators,” traders at Goldman Sachs wrote, pointing to new American Association of Individual Investors Sentiment Survey data. “This attitude toward risk is not just theoretical, investors are quite literally putting their money where their mouth is in terms of portfolio risk allocations.”
On top of that, September has been a historically bad month for stocks.
Those seasonal factors along with a jam-packed economic calendar are likely to keep investors on their toes the rest of the week. Manufacturing and services sector data are due Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Friday, investors will receive the August jobs report. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect 53,000 jobs were added for the month.
Stocks need ‘weak’ jobs data, says Interactive Brokers
“Wall Street needs weak statistics to unlock interest-rate relief here, which has been the top risk over the past several weeks. Softer labor figures would justify a balanced approach at the Warsh Fed, leading the committee to take the employment side of the institution’s dual mandate into consideration, effectively loosening financial conditions. Additionally, a second month in a row of declining payrolls would motivate heavy bond buying as slowdown angst gets priced more seriously onto the curve,” said Jose Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers.
— Fred Imbert
