By Amruta Khandekar and Shristi Achar A
(Reuters) -Wall Street's main indexes were set to edge higher at open on expectations that the Federal Reserve was done with its monetary tightening, while investors geared up for commentary by a slew of policymakers later in the week.
Wall Street's main indexes posted their best weekly performance in about a year on Friday, boosted by tumbling U.S. Treasury yields as a weaker-than-expected monthly payrolls report spurred hopes that the Fed could start cutting rates next year.
Traders' bets that the Fed will hold interest rates steady in December stand at 90%, while pricing in an about 80% chance the first policy easing would come as soon as June, according to the CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME) FedWatch tool.
Such expectations will be put to the test this week as market participants gauge the views of a raft of Fed policymakers, including Chair Jerome Powell, due to speak in the coming days.
Other speakers include voting members such as Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook, New York Fed President John Williams and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan.
The yield on the benchmark ten-year Treasury note, which slid to five-week lows on Friday, edged up to 4.616% on Monday.
"The one thing that needs to happen for the rally to continue to gain momentum is for the 10-year (yields) to stabilize," said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group.
"Rates are going to stabilize lower because it's pretty clear that the Fed has no intentions of raising rates in December and then we're getting closer to the rate cut dot plot (in) 2024."
Megacap stocks rose in premarket trading, with shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) added 1.6% after a source told Reuters the electric automaker plans to build a 25,000-euro ($26,838) car at its factory near Berlin.
The economic-data calendar for this week is light, with weekly jobless claims numbers due on Thursday and University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment report on Friday.
Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS), Instacart (NASDAQ:CART) and Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) are among major companies reporting earnings this week.
A total of 403 companies in the S&P 500 have reported profits to date in the third quarter, with 81.6% surpassing analyst estimates, per LSEG data.
At 8:29 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 3 points, or 0.01%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 4 points, or 0.09%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 17.75 points, or 0.12%.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), PDD Holdings, Bilibili and Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) were up between 1.2% and 3% premarket as Beijing stepped up efforts to stabilise its markets.
Dish Network dropped 6.6% after the pay-TV provider missed third-quarter revenue estimates. CEO Erik Carlson also announced he would step down from the role.
Bluegreen Vacations surged 105.1% after vacation property operator Hilton Grand proposed to buy the peer in a $1.5 billion deal.