Stock futures rise slightly as the market is set to end July with solid gains: Live updates

Stock futures rose slightly in overnight trading Sunday as the market is poised to wrap up the month of July with strong gains.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 34 points. S&P 500 futures rose 0.2% and Nasdaq 100 futures were 0.4% higher.

The S&P is up 3% in July, on pace for its fifth positive month in a row for the first time since its seven-month streak ending August 2021. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has gained 3.8% month to date, also on track for its fifth straight winning month.

The blue-chip Dow is up 3.1% in July. Last week, the 30-stock average posted a 13-day advance that matched the index’s longest streak of gains going back to 1987. 

“This bull market is no longer just a mega-cap story. A new chapter of broadening participation has developed,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial. “Relatively resilient economic data in the U.S., receding inflation pressures and expectations for the end of the Federal Reserve’s rate-hiking campaign have underpinned a notable expansion in market breadth since early June.”

The Fed hiked rates to their highest level in more than 22 years after passing a much-anticipated quarter-point hike. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank will make data-driven decisions on a “meeting-by-meeting” basis.

Investors will shift their focus on the big jobs report this week. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect the U.S. economy to have added 200,000 jobs in July. Nonfarm payrolls increased 209,000 in June.