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Stock-index futures were on the rise Tuesday night as President Joe Biden delivered a crucial State of the Union address, focused heavily on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the battle against COVID and a plan to fight surging inflation.
What are stock-index futures doing?
-
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average
YM00,
+0.30% YMH22,
+0.30%
were up 126 points, or 0.4%, to around 33,393. -
S&P 500 index futures
ES00,
+0.23% ESH22,
+0.23%
were advancing 11.25 points, or 0.3%, at 4,315. -
Nasdaq-100 futures
NQ00,
+0.28% NQH22,
+0.28%
rose 29.75 points, or 0.2%, to reach 14,035.25. -
The 10-year Treasury yields
TMUBMUSD10Y,
1.748%
were up 4 basis points to around 1.75%. -
April West Texas Intermediate crude
CLJ22,
+4.87%
topped $108 a barrel in electronic trading, after earlier settling at $103.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its highest since July 2014.
What’s driving the market?
In regular trade Tuesday, the Dow
DJIA,
fell 597.65 points, or 1.8%, to close at 33,294.95; the S&P 500
SPX,
slid 67.68 points, or 16%, to finish at 4,306.26; and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
dropped 218.94 points, or 1.6%, to end at 13,532.46, snapping a three-day win streak.
Biden delivered an optimistic speech on Tuesday, saying that America is “stronger today than we were a year ago,” even as war rages on in Eastern Europe and concerns about inflation linger domestically.
The speech came the U.S. announced that it was closing off American airspace to all Russian flights, a point that Biden mentioned in his speech, “further isolating Russia and adding an additional squeeze on their economy.”
The president also said Russia President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked attack against Ukraine “will have left Russia weaker and the rest of the world stronger.”
See:Zelensky says Putin is now resorting to the tactics of a terrorist in Ukraine offensive
This year has been uniquely challenging for investors, with the S&P 500 down 10% to date in 2022, as investors prepare for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in response to high inflation and enter a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden offered a plan to drive down inflation by boosting domestic manufacturing and highlighted treatments and vaccines against the coronavirus, despite fears of new variants.
