Stock Futures Climb; Fed in Focus

U.S. stock futures rose Monday, with a home builders' index due to kick off a busy week for economic data and several Federal Reserve speakers on tap. Chinese stocks surged as investors got a first chance to react to details of the government's planned economic reforms.

Building from the flat line, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 29 points to 15942, while those for the S&P 500 index rose 1.2 points to 1794.90. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index added 3.75 points to 3420.25.

The November home builders' index will be released at 10 a.m. EST on Monday, but the busiest data day this week is likely to be Wednesday. That's when retail sales, consumer prices, existing home sales, and the minutes of the Federal Reserve's Oct. 29-30 meeting are all due for release.

Craig Erlam, markets analyst at Alpari U.K., said the Fed minutes should "highlight just how uncertain the central bankers were about the potential impact of the shutdown on the economy. If this is the case, it seems very unlikely that we'll therefore see tapering in December, as it will take longer than a couple of months for the data to show beyond doubt that we're seeing a sustainable recovery, despite the shutdown in October," he said in an emailed note to clients.

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said big international banks with broker-deal units pose risks to financial stability, and regulators must make sure those banks hold sufficient capital, Bloomberg News reported Monday. Rosengren made the comments in prepared remarks, ahead of a speech on capital regulation to the Financial Stability Institute of the Bank for International Settlements in Abu Dhabi. Rosengren is a voting member of the Fed's policy-making panel this year.

New York Fed President William Dudley, a permanent voting member of the Fed's policy-making panel this year, will speak at Queens College in Flushing, New York at 12:15 p.m. EST.

Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser's speech on the economic outlook, given at the Risk Management Association's annual conference, is due at 1:30 p.m. Eastern. Plosser will be a voting member of the Fed's policy-making panel in 2014.

Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota will speak on metrics at his bank's workshop on "Quantifying the Too Big to Fail Subsidy" at 7:45 p.m. EST. Kocherlakota will be a voting member of the Fed's policy committee in 2014.

The S&P 500 and Dow industrials cinched record closes again Friday, and snared their sixth weekly gains in a row, up 1.6% and 1.3%, respectively. The S&P 500 is enjoying its longest winning streak since February.

In overseas markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose over 2% and the Hang Seng China Enterprises index surged over 4% as investors cheered China's reform-plan news from Friday. European stocks retreated after a six-week winning streak.

In other markets, gold eased and oil prices were slightly lower.