Futures For Stocks are Marginally Higher as Concerns About Imminent Interest Rate Hikes Grow

 

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Monday night trading in stock futures is marginally higher as investors try to recover from the previous session's selloff.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures increased by 40 points, or 0.12%. While Nasdaq-100 futures slightly declined, S&P 500 futures somewhat increased.

The week's trade got off to a bad start with Monday's closing. Leading the charge down, the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.93% to close the session at 11,239.94. The Dow fell 482.78 points, or 1.4%, to 33,947.10 after the S&P 500 lost 1.79% of its value to finish at 3,998.84.

Better-than-expected Equities were under pressure as a result of November's ISM Services data, which uses manufacturers' purchasing levels as a barometer for the state of the overall economy. This is due to investors growing more concerned that the Federal Reserve would need to raise interest rates for a longer period of time than initially anticipated in order to achieve its intended goal of reducing inflation.

The announcement supports the payrolls report from late last week, which also indicated a robust economy. A more "mixed" bag of data, as Solus Alternative Asset Management's chief analyst Dan Greenhaus put it, has given investors confusing signals about the condition of the economy.

At the Fed meeting in December, most market experts are still projecting a hike in interest rates of 50 basis points. However, Greenhaus claimed that investors are split on how long the central bank's interest rate hike campaign should continue, particularly in light of recent statistics showing that the economy is still robust in several regions.

On CNBC's "Closing Bell: Overtime," Greenhaus stated, "From a markets sense, I think you're still struggling with the days of getting past the days of 75 basis point raises." The question of "How high do we really have to go to bring all the inflation down" is what you're concentrating on right now.

Investors will be anticipating data on foreign commerce released on Tuesday morning to gain insight into the health of the US and global economies. They will keep an eye out for Smith & Wesson and Stitch Fix's post-bell earnings reports later in the day.