US STOCKS-Wall Street futures boosted by US-EU trade deal ahead of action-packed week
July 28 (Reuters) - Wall Street futures climbed on Monday as a trade agreement between the U.S. and the European Union boosted sentiment at the start of a week packed with megacap earnings, a Federal Reserve meeting and a U.S. tariff deadline.
U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a framework trade pact on Sunday, which will halve the import tariff rate on the EU to 15%.
At 5:32 a.m. ET, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 18.75 points, or 0.29%, Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 113.5 points, or 0.48% and Dow E-minis YMcv1 were up 85 points, or 0.19%.
The anticipation of the imminent U.S.-EU deal propelled the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to record closing highs on Friday, while the blue-chip Dow remained about 0.4% away from its all-time high hit in December.
A flurry of deals with U.S. trade partners, including Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines, helped drive Wall Street to new highs, with all the major indexes posting solid gains last week.
Other major economies are still scrambling to strike deals ahead of President Donald Trump's August 1 deadline. The Sino-U.S. negotiations later in the day are expected to extend their trade truce for another 90 days.
Markets' unprecedented momentum will be tested with this week's earnings parade from "Magnificent Seven" tech giants Meta Platforms META.O, Microsoft MSFT.O, Amazon AMZM.O, and Apple AAPL.O.
Last week, Alphabet's GOOGL.O surprise capital expenditure hike revived optimism in AI investments and returns, while Tesla TSLA.O disappointed by foreshadowing difficult upcoming quarters due to dwindling EV subsidies.
Tesla rose 1.7% in premarket trading after the automaker signed a $16.5 billion deal to source chips from Samsung Electronics 005930.KS.
The Fed will commence its two-day monetary policy meeting on Tuesday, with traders widely expecting the central bank to hold interest rates steady. According to the CME Group's FedWatch tool, the odds of the central bank delivering the first cut of the year in September stood at 59.8%.
Policymakers' comments will be closely analyzed for hints about future rate cuts and whether concerns over tariff-related inflation have eased. The meeting comes after Trump's relentless criticisms of Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering borrowing costs.
Trump on Friday suggested Powell might be ready to lower interest rates.
Among a deluge of key economic indicators this week, attention will be on the Personal Consumption Expenditure report (PCE) - the Fed's preferred inflation measure - and non-farm payrolls data to gauge how tariffs have affected consumer prices and the labor market.
Ether-linked companies Bitmine Immersion Technologies BMNR.N, BTCS BTCS.O, and GameSquare Holdings GAME.O rose between 2.7% and 5.3% after Ethereum ETH= prices hit over a seven-month high.
