Dow futures rebound 100 points as stocks look to resume their February rally

Stock futures rose early Wednesday with the market set to resume its February rally, as investors assessed a new batch of corporate earnings.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures implied an opening gain of more than 100 points. S&P 500 futures gained 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures also rose 0.4%.

Coca-Cola rose more than 1% in premarket trading after the company topped Wall Street’s estimates for its fourth-quarter earnings with cost-cutting efforts. Under Armour jumped 4.3% after reporting a surprise profit for the holiday quarter as sales were boosted by strong digital growth.

Better-than-expected earnings from Twitter, Lyft, Cisco Systems, Mattel and Yelp also boosted sentiment on Wall Street. Lyft reported signs of a recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Traders will also be watching closely Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech before The Economic Club of New York at 2:00 p.m. ET.

On Tuesday, the 30-stock Dow and the S&P 500 fell slightly, snapping a six-day winning streak. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite eked out another record closing high.

The small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 gained 0.4% to an all-time high, bringing the index’s weekly gain to nearly 11%. Many investors view small caps as a proxy for an economic recovery from the pandemic.

Wall Street is having a strong February with the S&P 500 up more than 5% so far. Investors remained optimistic about additional Covid-19 stimulus. House Democrats unveiled the details of a relief proposal that included $1,400 direct checks with faster phase-outs than previous bills. 

“The virus is continuing to mutate, vaccines are taking longer than expected to distribute and achieving herd immunity seems as if it will take a lot longer as a result,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Independent Advisor Alliance. “On the bright side, massive fiscal stimulus and an extremely accommodative Federal Reserve should keep equities moving higher while we wait for those setbacks to be resolved.”

The consumer price index report is scheduled to be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect a consensus 0.3% increase in the index, a measure of inflation, or a year-over-year gain of 1.5%, according to Dow Jones. Excluding food and energy, it is projected to rise by 0.1%.

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