xU.S. stocks rose Monday, as investors prepared for the final full trading week of the year, which includes a series of important economic data releases.
At 09:32 ET (14:32 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 175 points, or 0.4%, the S&P 500 index gained 35 points, or 0.5%, and the NASDAQ Composite climbed 145 points, or 0.6%.
Payrolls lead off data deluge Sentiment received a boost last week after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points, and indicated the likelihood of one more reduction in 2026.
The focus this week is likely to be on a slew of U.S. economic data reports, which could provide guidance as to the likely path of interest rates into the new year.
On Tuesday, the November jobs report will be published, with economists anticipating that U.S. payrolls inched up by a muted 35,000, according to Reuters estimates. Nonfarm payrolls from October, which were not announced because of the shutdown-driven data blackout, will be folded into the November report.
Meanwhile, a fresh unemployment rate will be unveiled, after the government’s 43-day closure kept the tally for October from ever being collected.
Thursday sees the release of the consumer price index for November, due on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.
Any signs of further cooling in the labor market and inflation are likely to increase expectations of more interest rate cuts by the Fed, with the central bank last week reiterating its message that future rate decisions will depend largely on the path of the U.S. economy.
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Micron’s earnings in spotlight In the corporate sector, earnings from semiconductor group Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) are likely to be in the spotlight this week, especially after weakness from the likes of Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) cast fresh doubt on the viability of the massive spending on artificial intelligence, resulting in a rotation away from the tech sector.
But the feeling around Micron is "extremely bullish," with many anticipating a multi-year boom cycle for the company’s high-bandwidth memory chips, which help power cutting-edge AI processors, the Vital Knowledge analysts said, with the results due on Wednesday.
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Still, even amid doubts over the tech sector, analysts at Goldman Sachs remain confident about the growth of the benchmark S&P 500 index over the course of the next 12 months. .
In a note, the strategists including Ben Snider and Ryan Hammond predicted that profit per share in stocks in the benchmark index would rise by an annualized 12% in 2026 to $305.
Revenue is also tipped to grow by 7% next year, with 70 basis points of profit margin expansion, the analysts added.
Underpinning these forecasts are Goldman Sachs’s predictions for accelerating gross domestic product growth in the U.S., along with a further softening in the dollar.
"Beyond the macro drivers, the profitability of the largest stocks will continue to be a key driver of S&P 500 earnings growth," they argued, adding that returns from the seven largest stocks in the index -- Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Broadcom, and Meta (NASDAQ:META) -- account for roughly a quarter of its total earnings.
Crude stabilizes after hefty losses
Oil prices slipped lower, adding to the previous week’s sharp losses as traders digested the prospect of disruptions to global supply from escalating U.S.-Venezuela tensions as well as a potential Russia-Ukraine peace deal.
Brent futures dropped 0.6% to $60.77 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 0.7% to $56.85 a barrel.
Both benchmarks slid more than 4% last week, driven largely by fears that global crude supply is outstripping consumption growth.
