By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening higher Monday, starting the week on a positive note as bitcoin makes something of a recovery and the earnings season winds down.
At 6:55 AM ET (1155 GMT), the Dow futures contract was up 125 points, or 0.4%, S&P 500 futures traded 20 points, or 0.5%, higher, and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 85 points, or 0.6%.
Wall Street saw a mixed week last week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average posting its fourth negative week in five and the S&P 500 registered two straight weeks of losses for the first time since February. The Nasdaq Composite, by contrast, snapped a four-week losing streak, gaining marginally.
That said, with only a few days left in the month, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and the broad-based S&P 500 are down month to date for May, losing 3.5% and 0.6% respectively. In contrast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen around 1% so far this month as inflation concerns loom over growth names.
The earnings season is gradually winding down, and there are not many companies reporting Monday. Still, there are a number of retailers left to report this week, most notably Best Buy (NYSE:BBY), Costco (NASDAQ:COST) and Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN).
Companies in focus Monday include Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE), after the company completed its first space flight in more than two years, boosting its chances of becoming commercially successful in taking paying customers into outer space.
The likes of AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) could also be in focus after Cineworld (LON:CINE), the world's second-largest cinema chain said on Monday its UK reopening weekend had topped expectations as animated comedy "Peter Rabbit 2" drew crowds after months of lockdown.
The data slate looks pretty empty Monday, but there are a number of Federal Reserve policymakers due to speak, including Governor Lael Brainard, who attends a virtual cryptocurrency conference.
Bitcoin regained some lost ground, but sentiment surrounding the world’s biggest digital currency remains weak as authorities in China and the U.S. moved to tighten regulation and tax compliance.
The digital currency was last seen 4% higher at $36,550, but this is still down nearly 50% from it's all-time high of just under $65,000, hit in mid-April. It shed as much as 17% on Sunday.
Oil prices gained Monday, bouncing after doubts emerge over the likelihood of Iranian crude supplies reentering the global market.
Crude fell almost 3% last week after Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, said the United States was ready to lift sanctions on his country's oil exports as part of reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
However, such a move seemed less likely Monday after the speaker of Iran's parliament said on Sunday a monitoring deal between Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog had expired and that its access to images from inside some Iranian nuclear sites would cease.
U.S. crude futures traded .7% higher at $64.68 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 1.7% to $67.44.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.3% to $1,882.60/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.3% higher at 1.2218.