Stock futures rise to kick off a shortened trading week

U.S. stock futures rose Monday night to kick off a holiday-shortened trading week.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures advanced 81 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures

 and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively.

Wall Street is coming off a winning week for the major averages. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained roughly 0.6% last week, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.5%. The Nasdaq Composite rose 2.6%.

Much of last week’s gain came Thursday after President Donald Trump’s plan for reciprocal tariffs on countries with levies on U.S. goods soothed investors who worried they would be more stringent.

Stocks have been choppy to start the year but, even with ongoing concerns around trade and inflation, a look at the major averages show that they are not too far off their recent highs as investors scan for a catalyst for the next leg higher.

The 30-stock Dow and the Nasdaq are about 1% off their recent records, while the S&P 500 is just 0.2% off its own milestone.

“As earnings expectations accelerate and the share repurchase window opens for most companies, the key tenets of the bear argument are breaking down, and odds are improving that the S&P 500 breaks out of the trading range it has been stuck in since the election,” wrote Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide.