Stock futures edged lower after a record-setting session on Wall Street, which sent the S&P 500 sailing further above the 4,000 level.
Contracts on the S&P 500 and Dow steadied just below record levels Tuesday morning. Both reached record intraday and closing highs on Monday, and all three major indexes including the Nasdaq jumped more than 1%.
Traders took the start of this week as their first opportunity to react to the Labor Department's blowout March jobs report from Friday, which was reported during a market holiday. Other recent economic data was similarly strong: An index tracking U.S. service sector activity surged to an all-time high in March, the Institute for Supply Management said Monday. Traders at least temporarily set aside concerns over fast-rising inflation and interest rates, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury note steadied around 1.7%.
Against an improving economic backdrop, analysts have been expediently raising their estimates for companies' first-quarter earnings results, with earnings season beginning in just a couple weeks. According to FactSet, first-quarter earnings estimates were increased by a record margin of 6% over the past several weeks, as analysts adjusted their forecasts for the much stronger-than-expected economic rebound seen so far.
"There have been a lot of false narratives out there that interest rates were going to take the markets lower, that inflation was going to scare the markets, the Fed, and the realization is that, the economy is doing very well," Larry Adam, Raymond James chief investment officer, told Yahoo Finance. "Not only is the economy doing better, but that's actually leading to earnings revisions going higher, and that's taking the market higher. And I don't think we're done yet. I think people are going to continue to see the strength of this economy during the summer, and you're going to see earnings continue to move up significantly throughout this year."
Meanwhile, more positive news around the trajectory of the pandemic has also help stoke the risk rally. Though lingering concerns around coronavirus variants and persistent outbreaks in states including Florida remain key concerns, other upbeat data around the pace of vaccinations has served as a counterbalance.
The vast majority of U.S. states are on track to open vaccine eligibility to all adults before President Joe Biden's May 1 deadline. An average of more than three million individuals per day are receiving COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Leisure travel has picked up, with the number of air passengers jumping above 1.5 million per day, according to TSA throughput data. And Southwest (LUV) announced Monday that it recalled 209 pilots on extended leave to be able to meet an expected jump in summer travel demand.
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