By Peter Nurse
Investing.com — U.S. stocks are set to open lower on Monday, shedding some of last week’s decent gains ahead of a big week of retail earnings.
As of 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT), the contract was down 165 points, or 0.5%, traded 20 points, or 0.5%, down and down 36 points, or 0.3% .
All three major Wall Street indexes posted strong gains last week, helped by weaker-than-expected inflation data that raised expectations that the Federal Reserve could call back its
interest rate hikes
potentially indicating that the mid-June lows would be the bottom of the cycle.
The blue chip gained 2.9% last week, the broad advanced 3.3%, its fourth straight positive week, while the gained 3.1%, also its fourth straight winning week.
Interest in the Federal Reserve’s upcoming decision in September means Wednesday’s release of the central bank’s July meeting will be of major interest as investors hope the central bank can pull off a soft landing. of the economy while fighting runaway inflation.
Also on Wednesday will be the release of July’s numbers, which will be watched for indications of strength in consumer spending after slowing growth in the second quarter.
As for Monday, the main economic data release will be , at 08:30 a.m. ET (12:30 p.m. GMT), which is expected to drop in August at 5:50 a.m. from 11:10 a.m. the previous month.
The retail sector will also be front and center in terms of corporate earnings this week, with Walmart (NYSE:) and Home deposit (NYSE:) is due to report second-quarter results on Tuesday, followed a day later by Target (NYSE:) and Lowe’s (NYSE:).
Walmart and Target recently lowered their forecasts and warned that inflation was squeezing margins and forcing consumers to cut back on discretionary purchases.
Oil prices fell sharply on Monday, weighed by a potential increase in supply from the oil giant Saudi Arabia (TADAWUL:) as well as Iran, in addition to concerns about slowing growth in China, the world’s second largest economy.
Saudi Aramco is ready to increase crude oil production to its maximum capacity of 12 million barrels per day if requested by the Saudi government, Chief Executive Amin Nasser said on Sunday, as the state-owned energy company announced one of the most important in history. .
Iran signaled earlier on Monday that it was ready to compromise to revive the UN-backed plan on lifting sanctions, increasing the potential for Iranian oil to return to the world market.
The Islamic Republic will respond to the European Union’s “final” text by midnight Monday, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.
Economic data released earlier on Monday showed China’s economic growth rate unexpectedly slowing in July, raising fears of a destruction in demand for oil from the world’s biggest importer.
As of 7:00 a.m. ET, futures were trading down 4.8% at $87.67 a barrel, while the contract was down 4.7% at $93.56.
Additionally, it fell 1.3% to $1,792.60 an ounce as it traded down 0.6% to 1.0202.
