{"id":83088,"date":"2026-08-17T18:06:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T08:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/?p=83088"},"modified":"2026-08-17T18:06:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T08:06:52","slug":"monday-17th-august-2026-u-s-stock-futures-steady-as-investors-await-fed-minutes-and-retail-earnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/monday-17th-august-2026-u-s-stock-futures-steady-as-investors-await-fed-minutes-and-retail-earnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday 17th August 2026: U.S. Stock Futures Steady as Investors Await Fed Minutes and Retail Earnings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br \/>Global Markets:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u00a0Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 0.34%, Shanghai Composite up 0.84% Hang Seng up 1.59% ASX down 0.35%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Commodities : Gold at $4,455.32 (0.40%) Silver at $65.705 (0.02%), Brent Oil at 88.57 (0.06%), WTI Oil at 81.29 (-0.22%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rates : US 10-year yield at 4.681, UK 10-year yield at 5.0401, Germany 10-year yield at 3.1988<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">News &amp; Data:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>(USD) \u00a0 Prelim UoM Consumer Sentiment<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u00a051.0\u00a0 to 54.7\u00a0 expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Markets Update:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>U.S. stock futures were little changed Sunday night as investors prepared for a quieter week following three consecutive weeks of gains for the S&amp;P 500. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 11 points, or 0.02%, while S&amp;P 500 futures gained 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asian markets traded mixed Monday. Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 was flat, while Australia\u2019s S&amp;P\/ASX 200 declined 0.23%. Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng Index climbed 1.4%, and mainland China\u2019s CSI 300 edged 0.13% higher. South Korean markets remained closed for a holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wall Street ended last week with the S&amp;P 500 posting another record high despite a lower close Friday. Strong corporate earnings have continued to support investor sentiment, helping equities advance despite geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and concerns surrounding the artificial intelligence trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide, said investors appear increasingly comfortable with the current market backdrop, giving bullish investors greater confidence to push stocks higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The week ahead offers fewer major catalysts, but investors will closely watch the Federal Reserve\u2019s latest meeting minutes, due Wednesday. Retail earnings will also remain in focus, with Home Depot reporting Tuesday, Lowe\u2019s Wednesday and Walmart Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the economic front, investors will monitor the August Empire State manufacturing index and the NAHB Housing Market Index for further clues about economic momentum and consumer conditions. The data could influence expectations for future Federal Reserve policy and interest rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Upcoming Events:<br \/><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>12:30 PM GMT &#8211;\u00a0 CAD \u00a0 Median CPI y\/y<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Markets: News &amp; Data: Markets Update: U.S. stock futures were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":79441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196,215,339],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fundamental-analysis","category-market-analysis","category-recent-posts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83089,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83088\/revisions\/83089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}