By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - U.S. stock futures were slightly lower in early APAC deals on Monday, following strong gains in the previous week as market participants cheered a stronger than expected start to the third-quarter earnings season, while better than expected retail sales also boosted risk sentiment.
During Friday’s regular session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 382.2 points or 1.09% to 35294.77. The S&P 500 rose 33.13 points or 0.75% to 4471.38, while the Nasdaq Composite added 73.91 points or 0.5% to 14897.34. Last week, the Dow added 1.58% for its best week since June, the S&P 500 added 1.82%, posting its best week since July, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.18%.
Futures contracts tied to the Dow shed 0.17%. S&P 500 futures lost 0.13%, while Nasdaq 100 futures lost 0.24%.
Among stocks, major banks Citigroup (NYSE:C), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) impressed market participants with strong earnings results last week, gaining 2.1%, 3.8% and 2.88% respectively, Meantime, third-quarter earnings season continues, with names such as IBM (NYSE:IBM), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Snap and Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) set to report.
Among data, monthly retail sales data beat expectations, rising 0.7% in September.