US pre-open: Futures higher as Biden drops out of presidential race

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Monday after Joe Biden dropped out of the US presidential race over the weekend. As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.11%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.48% and 0.82% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed 377.49 points lower on Friday but still managed to register a 0.7% gain for the week as a whole.

President Joe Biden's decision to drop out of the election race was in focus early on Monday, with him opting to endorse vice-president Kamala Harris for the Democratic Party's nomination. Both Biden's disastrous performance in last month's debate and a recent attempt on Donald Trump's life led to calls for the incumbent to bow out of the race in favour of Harris.

Trade Nation's David Morrison said: " Yesterday president Biden announced on social media that he was withdrawing from the Presidential Election, and endorsed vice-president Kamala Harris to replace him. The initial reaction was that this made Donald Trump less of a shoe-in for November. We'll know more once the Veep's exposure to voters is raised, assuming that her nomination is confirmed at the Democratic convention next month."

On the macro front, the Chicago Federal Reserve's June national activity index will be published at 1330 BST.

In the corporate space, Verizon will report its latest quarterly earnings on Monday.











Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com