U.S. Stocks Likely To Regain Ground Following Recent Weakness

After trending lower over the past sessions, stocks are likely to move back to the upside in early trading on Monday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a notably higher open for the markets, with the S&P 500 futures up by 0.8 percent.

Technology stocks may help lead an early rebound on Wall Street, as reflected by the 1.2 percent jump by the Nasdaq 100 futures.

Shares of Alphabet (GOOGL) are surging by 5.0 percent in pre-market trading after a report from Bloomberg said Apple (AAPL) is in talks to build Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence engine into the iPhone.

Nvidia (NVDA) is also seeing significant pre-market strength ahead of its GTC Conference, where the chipmaker is expected to provide updates on its AI initiatives.

Overall trading activity may be somewhat subdued, however, as traders look ahead to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but the central bank’s accompanying statement and economic projections could have a significant impact on the outlook for rates.

Recent hotter-than-expected inflation readings have reduced optimism about the likelihood of the Fed’s first rate cut coming in June.

Shortly after the start of trading, the National Association of Home Builders is scheduled to release its report on homebuilder confidence in the month of March. The housing market index is expected to come in unchanged in March after rising to 48 in February.

With traders looking ahead to the Fed meeting, stocks moved mostly lower over the course of the trading session on Friday. With the downward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closed lower for the third straight day.

The major averages finished the day off their worst levels but still firmly negative. The Nasdaq slumped 155.36 points or 1.0 percent to 15,973.17, the S&P 500 slid 33.39 points or 0.7 percent to 5,117.09 and the Dow fell 190.89 points or 0.5 percent to 38,714.77.

For the week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined by 0.7 percent, while the S&P 500 edged down by 0.1 percent and the Dow was nearly unchanged.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Monday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index surged by 2.7 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index jumped by 1.0 percent.

The major European markets have shown more modest moves to the upside on the day. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index have all risen by 0.2 percent.

In commodities trading, crude oil futures are rising $0.28 to$81.32 a barrel after slipping $0.22 to $81.04 a barrel last Friday. Meanwhile, after edging down $6 to $2,161.50 an ounce in the previous session, gold futures are inching up $4.40 to $2,165.90 an ounce.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 149.13 yen versus the 148.04 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Friday. Against the euro, the dollar is trading at $1.0901 compared to last Friday’s $1.0889.

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