Wall St set to open higher with focus on Jackson Hole meet, Nvidia earnings

WALL Street was set to open higher on Monday as investors awaited more clues on interest rates from a meeting of central bank policymakers at Jackson Hole and quarterly results from Nvidia later this week.

Strong gains in equities this year on signs of cooling inflation have come under test in August, with the S&P 500 losing more than 5% from its intra-day high in late July.

Fresh evidence of a robust U.S. economy last week yet again stoked expectations the Federal Reserve could keep rates higher for longer, driving the 10-year Treasury yield to its highest level since October, and pulling stocks lower. If the yield on the 10-year note, last up at 4.298%, crosses 4.338%, it would hit its highest level since 2007.

Investors are now keenly waiting for comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday at a meeting of central bankers at Jackson Hole in Wyoming that begins on Aug. 24.

“I don’t think the market is looking for some statement suggesting rate rises are over. But investors are looking for anything that can turn the near-term negative sentiment,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments.

Traders’ bets for a pause in rate hikes in September stood at nearly 89%, according to the CME Group’s Fedwatch tool. All three main U.S. stock indexes posted declines last week, led by the Nasdaq due to losses in major technology and growth stocks.

Bruised growth stocks edged higher, with Tesla rising 3.1% in premarket trading on Monday to lead the advance.

Nvidia, which sharply outperformed its megacap peers with gains of nearly 6% last week, climbed 2.6% as HSBC raised its price target on the stock to $780, the second highest on Wall Street.

The chip designer is expected to forecast quarterly revenue above estimates when it reports results on Wednesday. Nvidia earnings will be a major test for this year’s stock market rally, which has been fueled by optimism around the potential for artificial intelligence.

“They (Nvidia) are at the forefront of investor interest today and to the extent they indicate that there is some acceleration in earnings and sales from AI or that they perceive an increase coming, it would be very meaningful to the market,” said Meckler.

At 8:27 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 105 points, or 0.3%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 20.5 points, or 0.47%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 103.25 points, or 0.7%.

Shares of Palo Alto Networks jumped 12.6% in premarket trading as the cybersecurity firm forecast annual billings above expectations. Shares of its peer CrowdStrike Holdings also gained 2.9% .

VMware gained 5.6% after UK’s competition regulator cleared U.S. tech company Broadcom’s $69 billion purchase of the cloud computing firm. – Reuters