Futures rise as attention shifts to midterm elections

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U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Monday even as Beijing reaffirmed over the weekend that it would stick to its zero COVID-19 policy, while investor attention shifted. moved to Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

Republicans have gained momentum in the polls and analysts see a split government, with the GOP winning the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate, as the likely outcome that can hamper Democratic President Joe Biden’s agenda.

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A divided government could lead to a political stalemate that would prevent major policy changes, an outcome that investors view as supportive for stocks.

US consumer prices for October are expected to be released on Thursday. Economists expect annual consumer price inflation to slow to 8.0% and core numbers to fall to 6.5%.

The midterm elections and inflation are likely to provide major signals on Wall Street after a volatile week dominated by a mixed jobs report and hawkish comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.

As of 4:47 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 101 points, or 0.31%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 10.25 points, or 0.27%, and e-minis Nasdaq 100 were up 21.75 points, or 0.2%.

Apple Inc fell 1.1% in premarket trading after the company said it expected lower-than-expected shipments of high-end iPhone 14 models.

Meta Platforms Inc jumped 3.1% following a report that Facebook’s parent company planned to begin large-scale layoffs this week that will affect thousands of employees.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies JD.Com Inc, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Baidu Inc rose between 1.3% and 2.1%, despite Beijing reaffirming its strict COVID-19 policies in weekend course. (Reporting by Shubham Batra and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru)