Stock Futures Drift Higher After Best Week since July
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U.S. stock-index futures drifted higher on a sleepy Monday morning after Wall Street's best week since July 2013.
Today's Markets
As of 7:36 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 27 points, or 0.17%, to 16370, S&P 500 futures rose 3.3 points, or 0.17%, to 1861 and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 10.2 points, or 0.29%, to 3533.
The broad S&P 500 zoomed higher by 2.7% last week in its best performance since last summer. The move came as traders snatched up equities that were beaten down in the prior week.
Monday was off to a quiet start, with European markets closed for Easter Monday.
Traders were focusing on a report from Japan, that showed the trade deficit in the world's third-biggest economy swelling to 1.7 trillion yen on a seasonally-adjusted basis, well higher than the 1.4 trillion figure economists expected. The larger deficit figure was driven by a surge in imports that was coupled with only a small increase in exports, according to Japan-based investment bank Nomura.
In corporate news, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) made a roughly $101 billion bid for British rival AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN), according to news reports. The reports suggested the offer was rejected. Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) swung to a first-quarter profit. Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) posts its quarterly results after the closing bell.
Elsewhere, U.S. crude oil futures fell 12 cents, or 0.12%, to $104.17 a barrel. Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline dipped 0.39% to $3.04 a gallon. Gold dropped $9.10, or 0.7%, to $1,285 a troy ounce.