US stock futures rise ahead of manufacturing data

U.S. stock futures ticked up Tuesday, suggesting the New Year’s strong start will continue ahead of fresh data on manufacturing and the labor market.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 added 0.2% after the broad-market index closed up 0.6% and notched a record on Monday. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 0.3%, pointing to moderate gains for blue-chip stocks after the opening bell. Nasdaq-100 futures ticked up less than 0.1%.

Stocks have continued their upward march in 2022 after the S&P 500 closed up 27% last year, while investors are continuing to assess data on the spread of the Omicron variant. Cases hit a record in the U.S. and hospitalizations are rising but remain below pandemic peaks, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

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"The body of evidence that Omicron is materially less severe is growing and growing. The notion that a virulent but mild variant becoming the dominant variant is really a large step towards the end of the pandemic," said James Athey, an investment manager at Abrdn.

"The mildness of Omicron and therefore, potential for less disruption, less lockdown measures—all of these should feed directly into earnings expectations," he added.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note ticked up to 1.635% from 1.628% on Monday.

Purchasing managers’ surveys on the manufacturing sector for December are slated to be released at 10 a.m. ET. Economists are expecting a slowdown in growth, forecasting that supply-chain issues may have constrained U.S. factories.

The Labor Department is scheduled to put out a survey on job openings and turnover for November, also at 10 a.m. The previous month’s data showed there were 3.6 million more job openings than people looking for work, highlighting the tight labor market.

In earnings, furniture company MillerKnoll and wireless computing firm Smart Global Holdings are expected to post their results Tuesday after markets close.

In off-hours trading, Apple shares held steady after the company briefly became the first to reach a $3 trillion market capitalization on Monday.

Oil prices edged up ahead of an OPEC+ meeting scheduled for Tuesday where energy ministers are expected to decide whether to proceed with planned output increases. Global benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.2% to $79.15 a barrel.

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Bitcoin stabilized after a two-day fall, edging up 0.8% compared with its level at 5 p.m. ET Monday. It traded around $46,400, down 32% from its all-time high in November.

Overseas, the pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 added 0.5%. European airline stocks jumped, with International Consolidated Airlines rising 9%, Wizz Air advancing 8% and Ryanair up 7.6%.

In currency markets, the Turkish lira depreciated 1% to 13.3 to the dollar. The currency has fluctuated wildly in recent weeks as investors have assessed government measures aimed at stabilizing the economy. The Japanese yen weakened 0.4% against the dollar to a five-year low.

"The yen has really fallen off, that’s classical weakness based on investor appetite to take risk," said Gregory Perdon, co-chief investment officer at Arbuthnot Latham. "People are buying equities, buying high yield [bonds]—that’s the market tone."

In Asia, major benchmarks were mixed. The Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.2% after fresh data showed that Chinese exports were broadly stagnant last month due to lackluster foreign demand, even as manufacturing activity rebounded. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged up 0.1%.

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Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 1.8% as the weaker yen drew investors to the country’s stock market. The S&P/ASX 200 Index rallied 2%, hitting a four-month high on Australia’s first trading day of the year.