United States stock futures traded higher on Sunday night (Monday AEST) following a strong week on Wall Street that lifted the Dow Jones Industrial Average to fresh record highs, while investors looked ahead to the release of the Federal Reserve's latest meeting minutes.
By 10 am AEST (12 am GMT), Dow futures were up 0.1%, S&P 500 futures had gained 0.5%, and Nasdaq-100 futures were 1.5% higher.
Pat Bustamante, Senior Economist at Westpac Group, said improving geopolitical sentiment and easing inflation concerns had supported investor confidence heading into the weekend.
"There was a slight risk-on tone to end the week as President Trump reiterated that Iran had ‘agreed to just about everything we need’.
"Investors also digested key messages from the ECB’s forum in Sintra, Portugal, where policymakers suggested that inflation risks had eased in recent weeks."
The positive start to the week follows solid gains across major U.S. equity indices last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose nearly 2%, leaving the benchmark within reach of the 53,000-point mark for the first time.
The S&P 500 added 1.8% over the week, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.1%, extending the technology-heavy index's recent outperformance despite weakness among semiconductor stocks.
Chipmakers, which have been among the market's strongest performers throughout the year, lost momentum as investors rotated into other sectors.
Market participants are now turning focus towards monetary policy, with the minutes from the Federal Reserve's June policy meeting scheduled for release on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).
The meeting was the first chaired by new Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, and investors will scrutinise the minutes for clues on the central bank's outlook for inflation, interest rates and the broader U.S. economy.
