U.S. stock futures were trading lower during Sunday’s evening trade, after major benchmark indices finished the holiday shortened week higher as investors proved optimistic amid potentially smaller interest rate hikes from Federal Reserve policymakers. By 6:36pm ET (11:36pm GMT) Dow Jones Futures were down 0.2%, S&P 500 Futures fell 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 Futures were down 0.4%. In the week ahead, market participants will be looking toward fresh speeches from FOMC members Bullard and Williams on Tuesday and CB consumer confidence on Wednesday. On Thursday, ADP employment, JOLTS job openings, pending home sales, preliminary GDP figures and Powell’s speech on Thursday will be monitored closely, while Friday’s session will bring core PCE data, jobless claims, ISM manufacturing PMI, nonfarm payrolls and November’s unemployment print. On the earnings front, results from Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM), Five Below Inc (NASDAQ:FIVE), Pinduoduo (NASDAQ:PDD), Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU), Workday Inc (NASDAQ:WDAY), Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS), and Dollar General (NYSE:DG) are set to be released throughout the week. During Friday’s session, Dow Jones Industrial Average added 153 points or 0.5% to 3,347, the S&P 500 finished little changed and the NASDAQ Composite fell 59 points or 0.5% to 11,226.4. For the week, the Dow lifted 1.8%, the S&P 500 increased 1.5% and the NASDAQ added 0.7%.
