Stock Market Today: Stocks stall, Treasury yields higher ahead of huge week on Wall Street

Check back for live updates throughout the trading day.

U.S. equity futures edged modestly lower Monday, while Treasury yields and the dollar inched higher ahead of a monster week on Wall Street that could test a rally that's taken the S&P 500 to within touching distance of its all-time high.

Updated at 7:23 am EST

Macy's Christmas Cheer 

Macy's  (M) - Get Free Report shares are soaring in pre-market trading, and were last marked 17.8% higher at $20.49 each, following multiple reports that suggest the iconic retailer and Bloomingdale's owner is the target of a $5.8 billion buyout from private investors.

Related: Macy's soars on reports of $5.8 billion private equity buyout interest

Stock Market Today

Investors will navigate a busy schedule of macroeconomic data, central-bank rate decisions and Treasury bond auctions this week as traders begin to scale back some of bets on a spring interest-rate cut from the Federal Reserve following a stronger-than-expected November jobs report last Friday included nearly 200,00 new hires and firmer wage gains.

The reading probably won't affect Wednesday's Federal Reserve policy decision, which is expected to kept rates unchanged at a near two-decade high of 5.25% to 5.5%, but a softer-than-expected inflation report on Tuesday could alter Chairman Jerome Powell's messaging heading into the start of next year. 

That, alongside a resilient job market, a growing economy and firming earnings projections, looks to be laying the groundwork for a so-called soft landing in 2024 — inflation eases with no recession. That view is correspondingly supporting stocks into the final weeks of the year and beyond.

"The U.S. economy continues to chug along and is still headed for a soft landing. Interest rates have largely normalized, and markets are following suit," said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network in Waltham, Mass. 

"People are feeling better as they can get good jobs at good wages — and then go shopping. That is a good place to be as we enter the holiday season."

The S&P 500, which closed at a March 2022 high on Friday and is less than 200 points from its January 2022 peak, is set to open 1 point higher to start the week while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is priced for a 23 point bump.

The tech-focused Nasdaq, which is up 37.6% for the year and closed at the highest levels since January on Friday, is set to open 7 points lower.

Benchmark 10-year note yields were marked 4 basis points (0.02 percentage point) higher from Friday's close at 4.276%, while 2-year notes rose 6 basis points, following a 13 basis point surge after Friday's jobs report, to change hands at 4.765%.

In overseas markets, European stocks edged 0.03% higher in early Frankfurt trading, following the highest close in February on Friday. Investors await four key central-bank rate decisions, including from the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, later in the week.

Overnight in Asia, another negative inflation reading in China stoked calls for further economic support from Beijing and lifted stocks modestly higher.

Still, the regionwide MSCI ex-Japan index ended the session 0.31% lower, while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo finished 1.5% higher in a follow-on rally from Wall Street's Friday close.

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