Stock Market Today: Stocks extend record run; retail sales on deck

The S&P 500 notched its 30th record close of the year on June 17, taking its 2024 gain to 14.75%.

Jun 18, 2024 - 18:30

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Stock Market Today: Stocks extend record run; retail sales on deck

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U.S. equity futures nudged higher Tuesday, following on from another record close for the S&P 500, as investors looked to a busy slate of data and Federal Reserve speakers heading into the midweek Juneteenth holiday.

The S&P 500 notched its 30th record close of the year last night, rising 41.6 points on the session to take the benchmark's year-to-date gain to around 14.75%, powered once again by outsized gains in the tech sector.

The Nasdaq also closed at a record and has gained nearly 19% this year, as investors continue to drive tech stocks higher on hopes that an artificial-intelligence wave will translate into robust profit growth both in the tech sector itself and beyond.

Focus in today's session, however, is likely to fall on the health of the broader economy and the chances that slowing inflation will prompt the Federal Reserve into an autumn interest-rate cut.

The Commerce Department will publish its official estimate of May retail sales at 8:30 am Eastern time, with economists looking for a monthly gain of around 0.3%. Industrial production data for the same month will follow at 9:15 am Eastern time.

The S&P 500 notched its 30th record high close of the year last night, taking its 2024 gain to 14.75%.

A cohort of six Fed officials will also be making public statements today as investors attempt to find clues as to when, or indeed whether, the Fed will begin reducing its benchmark lending rate, which sits at a 22-year high of between 5.25% and 5.5%.

The CME Group's FedWatch tool pegs the odds of a September rate cut at around 61%, with similar odds for a follow-on reduction in December.

In the bond market, benchmark 10-year note yields were trading at 4.292% heading into the start of the New York session and ahead of a $16 billion auction of 20-year bonds later in the session, with 2-year notes were pegged at 4.774%.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, was marked 0.16% higher at 105.493.

Heading into the start of the trading day on Wall Street, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 suggest an 8 point opening-bell gain, while those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average are indicating a 33 point advance.

The tech-focused Nasdaq, meanwhile, is called 67 points higher, thanks in part to premarket gains for index heavyweights Nvidia (NVDA) , Tesla (TSLA) and Apple (AAPL) .

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In overseas markets, European stocks rebounded from a six-week low to rise 0.51% in early Frankfurt trading, helped by solid gains for the banking sector, while Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.41% in London.

Overnight in Asia, the Reserve Bank of Australia left its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 4.35%, the highest in 12 years, while the Bank of Japan signaled the chances of a July rate hike, only the second move higher in 17 years.

The Nikkei 225 was marked 1% higher by the close of trading in Tokyo, while the regionwide MSCI ex-Japan index added 0.63%.