US stock futures are trading modestly lower as traders try to push their luck after the US stock indices recorded their best week on Friday since June this year. The stock market has been getting hammered for several months as investors have numerous concerns. However, one of those concerns has failed to materialize significantly, and that is the third quarter’s earnings. 

Investors and traders thought that during this quarter, they would hear a lot of doomy projections from the companies, such as the impact of the potential recession, lower consumer spending, and the strength of the US dollar index squeezing their margins from overseas earnings. However, so far, the situation with respect to earnings has helped the US stock market score gains and earnings. This week, the earnings season heats up further as we will get to hear from some of the mega tech names. For instance, Alphabet and Microsoft report their earnings on Tuesday. We hear from Meta on Wednesday, and to finish the week, we will see the earnings from Apple and Amazon—the two biggest names for this week—on Friday. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by more than 748 points, or 2.47%, on Friday. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite indices both had gains of 2.37% and 2.31%, respectively. This contributed to the progress made earlier in the week. The S&P 500 and Dow both had gains of 4.7%, while the Nasdaq jumped 5.2% over the same period.

Forex 

In the UK, the focus continues to remain on the chaos which is taking place in the UK’s government. Because Boris Johnson understood that his chances of winning the support of the Conservative Party were thin, Rishi Sunak became the favourite among bookies to lead the way out of its misery. The Sterling is likely to build more strength as Sunak is a person who comes from the finance department, and as an ex-finance minister, he knows what the country needs without harming its reputation in front of the IMF and others. All eyes are going to remain on Sterling and Gilts. 

Stock to watch 

Snap shares are highly volatile in the pre-market today as traders are still under the dreadful price action that the stock experienced on Friday on the back of its earnings. Snap was able to surprise the market with its unexpected profit. However, the disappointment was mainly on the revenue side, which missed the forecast and painted a pessimistic picture. The appealing earnings report shredded the company’s stock price by 28% on Friday, and the stock has traded lower by another 3% during the early hours of trading today. 

Oil 

Crude and Brent oil prices have started the week on the back foot, while investors are interested to know how the expectations around the tight supply, mainly managed by Saudi Arabia, will influence prices. The Biden administration has taken a different stance towards Saudi Arabia, its biggest ally in the Middle East, and the tensions are ever-increasing. Saudi Arabia doesn’t want to be dictated to by the US about its oil supply, and the US wants to aggressively increase its supply production, putting oil prices on a high hotbed. Speculators know that the current situation will only play in favour of the Saudis as the US cannot increase oil production overnight. Still, Saudis can undoubtedly turn off the oil supply button immediately if they want. From traders’ point of view, this particular point remains highly sensitive, and all eyes are likely to be focused on these elements. 

Gold 

The precious metal isn’t on stable grounds to begin the week, as the bears have been able to pull the rope a little more on their side as the new week begins. The big question which is very much influencing the price of the precious metal is if the Fed is going to slow down the pace of its interest rate hikes. Market participants know that the Fed will increase the interest rate by 75 basis points once again during their next meeting, pushing the US dollar index higher. The strength of the US dollar index is keeping checks on the yellow metal’s price. Later on today, we do have the US Flash Manufacturing PMI data, which is likely to bring higher volatility for the gold prices. A strong number is likely to support the bullish case for the dollar index, which means the gold price may reverse its course