Hopes of ‘Santa rally’ looked to be alive again on Monday. An agreement to avoid a federal-government shutdown was adding to positivity over the latest inflation data.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 115 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 futures were climbing 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures were gaining 0.7%.
A stopgap funding measure for the federal government was approved before the midnight Saturday deadline, avoiding a potentially harmful shutdown. That came on top of fresh data Friday showing U.S. inflation in November, as measured by personal-consumption-expenditures price index, rose slightly less than Wall Street expected.
The two factors could reignite the possibility of a Santa rally, after U.S. stock markets suffered last week as the Federal Reserve signaled fewer rate cuts were likely in 2025 than traders had been pricing in.
The traditional Santa Claus trading period will begin on Christmas Eve and run through Jan. 3. The seasonal stretch covers seven sessions including the last trading five days of December and the first two of the New Year.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note stood at 4.536% early on Monday, ticking up from the previous week.