US pre-open: Futures point to gains ahead of first session of 2021
Wall Street futures had stocks opening higher ahead of the bell on Monday as major indices looked set to build on last year's record-setting gains on the first day of trading for 2021.
As of 1230 GMT, Dow Jones futures were up 0.46%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures were 0.43% and 0.41% firmer, respectively.
The Dow closed 196.92 points higher on the final day of trading for 2020, wrapping up an unexpectedly strong year on a positive note.
Traders will be focussed on the US state of Georgia as the final two runoffs which will decide exactly who runs the Senate take place.
Although Democrats appear unlikely to be able to claim both remaining seats, the polls have turned in their favour of late as the president continues to search for a way to overturn November's election result.
Also in focus was news that the rollout of multiple Covid-19 vaccines across the US had been slowed down due to supply constraints amid an ever-increasing number of new cases, with the US having now recorded more than 21.11m cases of Covid-19, claiming the lives of more than 360,078 Americans in the process.
On the macro front, IHS Markit's final manufacturing PMI for December will be published at 1445 GMT, while construction spending figures for November will follow at 1500 GMT.
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta president Raphael Bostic and Chicago Fed president Charles Evans will both deliver comments at 1500 GMT.