The major U.S. index futures are currently pointing to a lower open on Tuesday, with stocks likely to give back ground after moving notably higher over the course of the previous session.
Some trades may look to cash in on yesterday’s strong gains amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.
While the Federal Reserve is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged later this month, traders have recently become increasingly tentative about whether the central bank will cut rates in March.
CME Group’s FedWatch Tool still indicates a 57.3 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point in March, but that figure is well below recent highs.
An increase in treasury yields may also weigh on the markets, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note rebounding after turning lower over the course of the previous session.
U.S. stocks ended on a buoyant note on Monday, with the Nasdaq outperforming the other major averages thanks to hectic buying in the technology sector.
A drop in bond yields and optimism about the outlook for stocks despite recent uncertainty about the likelihood of near-term interest rate cuts helped push stock prices higher.
The major averages all ended with strong gains. The Dow ended up 216.90 points or 0.6 percent at 37,683.01, the S&P 500 jumped 66.30 points or 1.4 percent to 4,763.54, and the Nasdaq settled with a gain of 319.70 points or 2.2 percent at 14,843.77.
The Dow was weighed down by Boeing shares, which fell 8 percent after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines to ground dozens of the company’s 737 Max 9 aircraft after a door plug blew out in the middle of an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday.
American Airlines climbed more than 7 percent. Chipmaker Nvidia rallied more than 6 percent. Intel and Advanced Micro Devices climbed about 5.5 percent.
Organon & Co. shares soared 13 percent. Atista Networks, Fortinet, Dexcom, Global Payments, Teleflex and Moderna gained 4 to 7 percent.
Salesforce.com, HP, Intel, Airbnb, Adobe Systems, Amazon, United Airlines Holdings, PayPal, Netflix and Texas Instruments were among the other major gainers in the session.