US pre-open: Futures higher following Trump assassination attempt

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were firmly in the green ahead of the bell on Monday as market participants assessed the impact of Donald Trump's attempted assassination on stocks. As of 1245 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.50%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.41% and 0.48% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed 247.15 points higher on Friday following the publication of Q2 earnings from a number of the nation's biggest banks.

Investors were zeroed in on an attempt on former president and current Republican party candidate Donald Trump's life, with many traders speculating that the attempt may lead to an improved poll performance for the Republicans ahead of the November election. The Republican National Convention will also kick off Monday, with Trump currently leading Joe Biden in national polls.

"The polls already implied Trump had a fighting chance of winning the presidential election. The markets are now looking for clues that he has won additional support from the American public," said AJ Bell's Dan Coatsworth, noting that oe such signal had been sounded in the cryptocurrency market, where bitcoin has jumped 5% to $62,831 since the incident.

"Trump is seen to be pro-crypto and the theory that he is now in a stronger position in the race to the White House has fired up traders looking for assets to benefit if he gets back into power."

On the macro front, a preliminary reading of July's Empire State manufacturing index will be published at 1330 BST, while Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell and San Francisco president Mary Daly will deliver speeches at 1730 BST and 2135 BST, respectively.

In the corporate space, Goldman Sachs will update the market on its latest quarterly performance before the open, while Morgan Stanley and Bank of America will both report earnings on Tuesday, and Johnson & Johnson, United Airlines and Netflix were all slated to post their latest quarterly numbers before the end of the week.

Elsewhere, Alphabet was said to be in advanced talks to acquire cybersecurity firm Wiz for $23.0bn, according to the Wall Street Journal, potentially paving the way for Google's largest ever acquisition.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com