Stock futures gain as S&P 500 heads for best week since November election: Live updates

Stock futures ticked higher early Friday, as Wall Street looks complete its first weekly gain of the new year.

Futures tied to the 30-stock Dow added 146 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively.

For the week, the Dow and S&P 500 are up 2.9% and 1.9%, respectively. That puts them on pace for their biggest weekly advance since the week of the U.S. presidential election in November. The Nasdaq Composite, up 0.9% week to date, is headed for its best one-week performance since early December.

Those gains come after investors received back-to-back reports showing inflationary pressures softening somewhat. The core consumer price index rose less than expected year on year, and the producer price index also had a smaller-than-anticipated increase for December.

Strong earnings from major banks also boosted stocks this week, as they tried to shake off December doldrums that carried over into the start of 2025.

The year got off to an rocky start, with sharp swings in the 10-year Treasury yield just this week, tariff threats from the incoming Trump administration and the Federal Reserve’s unclear path on interest rates, according to Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

“As a result, we have seen several of the early indicators that are not very favorable … we’ve already set a low this year that undercut the prior December low,” Stovall said. “Historically, whenever we have a low in the first quarter of a new year that has undercut the prior December low, the frequency of a gain is a coin toss — 50%. The average price change was a very slight decline.”

Stovall added that he expects stocks to trade rangebound in the near future until investors receive more clarity on the next market catalyst.

Investors are also looking ahead to next week, as Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated as president for the second time. Stocks rallied right after his November electoral victory, as investors bet on deregulation and lower taxes.