DJIA futures up 22 points (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - New York, 08 Jul - US futures were stuck in neutral as investors geared up for a busy week that features key inflation data, Fed testimony and bank earnings.

Wall Street ended higher on Friday to close out a winning week with the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq both finishing at record highs.

With monetary policy still centre stage, the focus this week is on inflation data for June which could help swing the argument on interest rates in favour of a cut sometime this year.

The Federal Reserve has acknowledged progress has been made in bringing down inflation towards its 2% target rate but has cautioned that it wants to see more evidence the easing is sustainable.

According to the CME FedWatch Tool, investors are pricing in a 74% chance the Fed cuts rates in September.

The market will also be closely monitoring the semi-annual testimony from Fed Chair Jerome Powell before the Senate Banking Committee tomorrow and the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday for clues on where rates are heading near term.

On the corporate front, the second quarter earnings season gets under way with a first round of results from some of the biggest banks later in the week including JPMorgan, Citi and Wells Fargo. PepsiCo and Delta Air Lines are also slated to report.

On the stocks front, Paramount Global shares were up more than 2% premarket after it agreed to merge with Skydance Media.

Futures on the Dow Jones were up 22.00 points, or 0.06%, S&P 500 futures were down 0.25 points, or virtually unchanged, while futures on the Nasdaq were 1.50 points, or 0.01%, lower.

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(RADIOCOR) 08-07-24 13:52:37 (0366) 5 NNNN