US Stock Market Futures: Dow, S&P, Nasdaq Surge, Point To Monday Opening Gain

Wall Street hopes to begin the trading week the same way it did on March 30 -- with a rally to lift it out of the doldrums.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the benchmark S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite are all skewing upwards as investors seem cheered by upbeat news on the coronavirus war front.

Both Spain and France, the second and fifth hardest hit COVID-190 countries in terms of confirmed cases, announced a welcome levelling-off in their death toll. In the United States, the hardest hit country in the world as far as case count goes, New York State is reporting a decrease in daily deaths.

These bits of cheery news were enough to propel Dow futures upwards by 710 points Sunday evening, or around 3.4%. S&P 500 futures rose 3.5% while NASDAQ futures gained 3.6%.

The news of a slowdown in deaths is giving equities markets worldwide hope the lockdown measures that are heavily damaging economies are finally starting to prove effective, said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst for Asia Pacific at Oanda.

Analysts agree Wall Street is eager for a morale-boosting rebound after it ended last week with two out of three days posting losses. Adding to the gloom was the abysmal jobs report for March 22 to 28 that revealed a record breaking 6.6 million initial unemployment claims, the largest in U.S. history. There are now more than 10 million unemployed Americans at the end of March.

On the plus side is news out Saturday Senate Republicans and Democrats have agreed to CARES 2, another trillion dollar rescue package. CARES 2 (also called Corona 4 by others) will send additional payments to families, and will provide "desperately needed resources" to those battling the crisis on the frontlines, including personal protective equipment (PPE), said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA.

She said CARES 2, which comes after the original CARES Act signed into law on March 24, must "go further" to help American families, small businesses, and health workers. Pelosi said the acceleration of the pandemic means "we must double down on the down-payment we made in the CARES Act by passing a CARES 2 package."

"CARES 2 must go further in assisting small businesses including farmers, extending and strengthening unemployment benefits and giving families additional direct payments," she said in the letter to members of the House.

"We must also provide the desperately needed resources for our state and local governments, hospitals, community health centers, health systems and health workers, first responders and other providers on the frontlines of this crisis. Our communities cannot afford to wait, and we must move quickly."