U.S. stock futures rallied early on Monday as strong manufacturing data out of China eased worries of a possible global economic slowdown.
At around 7:10 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a gain of 172 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes were also in positive territory.
A private survey showed the country’s manufacturing activity expanded unexpectedly in March, at its fastest pace in eight months. The figures gave some much-needed relief to investors unnerved of late by fears of a global economic downturn. Early last week, equities came under pressure as bond markets indicated an impending U.S. recession.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note recently dipped below that of the 3-month bill, in what’s known as a yield curve inversion. A yield curve inversion is seen as a trusted predictor of a recession. (my note: Right now the yield on the 3 month bond is 2.416, the yield on the 10 is 2.85, therefore there is no need to even mention last weeks hiccup as the inversion was not sustained. But, Lord knows, we can’t let Trump have any credit. I suppose, it was the only negative econ news that I have seen in a long while, so they had to glom onto it without fully understanding what it is or how it works)
Monday’s gains came after the S&P 500 notched last week its best start to a year since 1998 and its strongest quarterly performance since 2009. The broad index gained 13.1 percent in the first quarter, led by the technology sector.
the markets are a leading indicator. When the market thinks things are good, the market goes up, it goes down when the market thinks that bad things are coming or are happening.
Hence:
Monday is a busy day on the data front, with U.S. retail sales, manufacturing numbers, construction spending and business inventories due to be released.
The markets would not be up if they expected bad numbers
