Wall Street Set For Opening Gains After Sharp Weekly Losses

U.S. stocks were set for a relief rally on Monday as investors found value in beaten-down shares after the main benchmarks suffered their worst weekly selloff this year on worries about restrictive monetary policies.

The blue-chip Dow erased its gains for the year in Friday's selloff and the S&P 500 logged its third straight week of losses on fears of that a strong U.S. economy and high inflation will give the Fed more room to raise rates.

Futures pointed to a recovery in sentiment on Monday as U.S. Treasury yields slipped after a strong rally. Rate-sensitive growth stocks such as Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc climbed in premarket trading. [US/]

Tesla added 2.8% after the electric automaker said its plant in Brandenburg near Berlin was producing 4,000 cars a week, three weeks ahead of schedule according to a recent production plan reviewed by Reuters.

"We are looking at a relief rally today because the market was down so much last week," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research in New York.

"February historically is the second worst month of the year for the stock market. So investors are concluding from a seasonal perspective that maybe stocks could rally at least in the near term."

The yield on two-year notes, the most sensitive to short-term rate expectations, slipped after touching a near four-month high earlier in the session. [US/]

Traders added to their bets of a 50-basis-point (bps) hike in March after data last week showed the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, the metric by which the Fed measures its 2% inflation target, rose 5.4% last month.

Fed fund futures show traders have priced in a third 25 bps hikes this year and see rates peaking at 5.38% by September. [FEDWATCH]

At 8:52 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 235 points, or 0.72%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 34 points, or 0.86%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 134.5 points, or 1.12%.

Data on Monday showed new orders for key U.S.-manufactured capital goods increased more than expected in January but orders for durable goods fell more than expected.

After last week's hawkish comments from the Fed policymakers, investors will turn to Fed Governor Philip Jefferson's speech later in the day.

Seagen Inc surged 13.2% after the Wall Street Journal reported that Pfizer was in early talks to acquire the biotech firm. Pfizer's shares slipped 1.1%.

U.S. railroad operator Union Pacific jumped 9.7% as Chief Executive Lance Fritz said he would step down, a move that follows calls from hedge fund Soroban Capital Partners for his ouster.

Fisker Inc climbed 9.2% after the EV maker reported increased orders for its sports utility vehicle Ocean and maintained its production forecast for the year.