U.S. stock futures rose on Tuesday as the final sessions of 2022 kicked off, with investors hoping a Santa Claus rally would emerge and lift markets weighed down by recession fears.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 160 points, or 0.48%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.4% and 0.1%, respectively.
During Friday’s regular session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 176 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2 percent.
Friday marks the start of the Santa Claus rally period, which is generally considered the last five trading days of the year, as well as the first two trading days of the new year. Markets were closed on Monday for the Christmas holiday.
Investors are expecting either relative calm or further volatility during the holiday-shortened week amid low trading volumes. Markets are wrapping up a month and a year defined by surging fears of a recession.
In December, the S&P 500 lost about 5.8%, while the Dow and Nasdaq lost about 4% and 8.5%, respectively. It was the largest monthly drop since September. The major indexes are headed for their worst annual performance since 2008.
“[The] Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial, wrote on Friday, “What kind of recession is still unanswered. For that, the answer depends largely on how much more the Fed needs to raise rates to finally address sticky inflation.” “
On the economic front, traders looked ahead to the latest data on wholesale inventories for November and S&P/Case-Shiller home prices for October before markets opened on Tuesday.