US pre-open: Futures in the green as traders await Jackson Hole symposium later in the week

Wall Street stock futures were pointing to early gains ahead of the bell on Monday as market participants await the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole symposium later in the week.

As of 1245 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.41%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.33% and 0.29% higher, respectively.

The Dow Jones closed 225.96 points higher on Friday in what was an otherwise losing week for major averages due to worries that the central bank's potential move to pull back monetary stimulus may decelerate US economic recovery that was already being tested by the spread of the Covid-19 delta variant.

The week's primary focus will be the Fed's Jackson Hole symposium, with investors likely to scrutinise it for any hints on the central bank's timeline for scaling back its $120.0bn a month bond-buying program. The event will take place virtually on Thursday and Friday, with Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell set to deliver a speech titled "The Economic Outlook".

AvaTrade's Naeem Aslam said: "Futures in United States and Europe are trading higher today, following the erratic performance of stock markets last week.

"The reason behind the turmoil is that investors are unsure how withdrawal of the central bank's stimulus will affect economic recovery, which is already being hampered by a ramp up in coronavirus cases caused by the Delta variant. Investors should keep a close eye on tapering situation in order to predict how markets could move in the near future.

"Moving forward, investors should anticipate some volatility in stock markets as governments around the world adjust their policies in response to the state of inflation and economic growth. Furthermore, Wall Street typically reacts more to changing interest rates than to tapering, so we can anticipate a lag between tapering and the first interest rate hike."

On the macro front, the Chicago Fed's July national activity index will be published at 1330 BST, while a flash reading of the IHS Markit's August manufacturing PMI will follow at 1445 BST and last month's existing home sales data report will be released at 1500 BST.

No major corporate earnings were slated for release.