The home stretch for 2024 is here. It’s expected to be a comparatively quiet week, with a shortened session tomorrow and a day off on Wednesday. Futures are mixed after stocks rose Friday to end the week with losses; traders are eying the possibility of a “Santa Claus Rally”; affairs in Washington, D.C., stabilized over the weekend, with President Biden signing a stopgap funding measure to avert a government shutdown; Honda and Nissan are moving closer to a big business combination; and some new stocks are joining the Nasdaq 100 index. Here’s what investors need to know today—and in the days ahead.
U.S. stock futures are mixed early Monday. S&P 500 futures are roughly flat, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are lower, and Nasdaq futures are ticking upward. All three indexes finished Friday higher, rising 1% or more, but they also ended with weekly losses, weighed down in part by investor concerns that the Federal Reservemight not cut interest rates as …