By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening slightly lower Monday, starting the new week on a cautious note ahead of new economic data that could influence the Federal Reserve’s December policy decision.
At 07:00 ET (12:00 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 115 points, or 0.3%, S&P 500 Futures traded 13 points, or 0.3%, lower and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 20 points, or 0.2%.
The major averages recorded their second successive positive week last week, boosted by optimism that the U.S. central bank will start reducing the size of its interest rate hikes next week, even after a stronger than expected November jobs report.
Investors will be looking for more clues ahead of the Fed’s final meeting this year, starting Monday with the ISM services PMI release. This is expected to record a small reduction to 53.3 in November, from 54.4 the prior month, remaining in expansion territory.
Of more importance is likely to be Friday’s November PPI release, as the Fed seeks confirmation that inflation is falling back from the record levels seen earlier this year.
The headline figure is expected to rise 7.2% on a year-over-year basis, slowing slightly after an 8% increase the previous month, while core PPI, which strips out food and energy costs, is also expected to cool.
In the corporate sector, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) will be in the spotlight after Xinhua reported that the electric vehicle manufacturer delivered just over 100,000 China-made units in November, the highest monthly sales since its Shanghai factory opened in late 2020.
However, Bloomberg reported Tesla also plans to cut December output of the Model Y at its Shanghai plant by more than 20% from the previous month.
Elsewhere, AT&T (NYSE:T) has agreed to pay a $6.25 million penalty to settle an SEC lawsuit accusing the phone company of selectively leaking financial information.
Crude oil prices firmed Monday on optimism of a broad relaxation of China’s COVID restrictions while OPEC+ maintained its output targets over the weekend.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, decided on Sunday to stick to the October plan to cut output by 2 million barrels per day from November, waiting to see the impact of the EU import ban and Group of Seven $60-a-barrel price cap on seaborne Russian oil, which came into force Monday.
By 07:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 2.7% higher at $82.12 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 2.5% to $87.74.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,808.65/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.3% higher at 1.0567.