DJIA futures up 58 points (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - New York, 29 Apr - US futures were cautiously higher ahead of a busy week of big earnings, key economic data and a Federal Reserve meeting.

Wall Street ended sharply higher on Friday with the tech-heavy Nasdaq up 2% after strong results from Microsoft and Alphabet. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 both racked up their best week's trading since November as AI prospects continued to lift sentiment.

The focus this week will be the Fed's policy meeting on Wednesday when policy makers are widely expected to keep interest rates on hold in response to stubborn inflation. But investors will be watching Fed chief Jerome Powell's press conference for clues on where rates could be going in the months to come.

The CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently pricing in the likelihood of a first rate cut no earlier than September.

On the data front, the main attention-grabber will be the payroll report at the end of the week for insight into how the resilient US labour market is faring.

Strong labor market readings have stoked worries that Fed officials will have little leeway for cutting rates short term as they seek to weed out pricing pressure.

The earnings season meanwhile remains in full throttle with Amazon, McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Apple among a range of large companies due to update the market.

On the stocks front, shares in Tesla are up more than 10% in premarket trade after China gave a thumbs up to the EV group's self-driving service following a visit to the country by its founder and head Elon Musk. Domino's Pizza jumped 4.7% after it reported earnings that beat expectations.

Futures on the Dow Jones were up 58.00 points, or 0.15%, S&P 500 futures were up 11.50 points, or 0.22%, while futures on the Nasdaq were 57.50 points, or 0.32%, higher.

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(RADIOCOR) 29-04-24 13:59:22 (0345) 5 NNNN