Dow futures gain 200 points Monday following Trump's pick of Bessent for Treasury: Live updates

U.S. stock futures climbed Monday as Wall Street kicked off a shortened Thanksgiving trading week.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 275 points, or 0.6%. Futures tied to the S&P 500 climbed 0.4%, while Nasdaq-100 futures advanced around 0.5%.

Wall Street is coming off a winning week as the postelection rally picked up again. The 30-stock Dow advanced around 2% last week and posted a record close on Friday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each rose about 1.7%. The small-cap Russell 2000 jumped roughly 4.5% during the week.

President-elect Donald Trump signaled his intention to nominate Key Square Group founder Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary. Investors viewed the pick favorably and see the hedge fund manager as someone who will be supportive of the equity market and who may help mitigate some of Trump's most extreme protectionist policies.

"I would recommend that tariffs be layered in gradually," Bessent said to CNBC in an interview earlier this month before he was picked. "If you take that price adjustment coupled with all the other disinflationary things President Trump is talking about, we're going to be at or below the 2% inflation target again."

Treasury yields pulled back slightly, and the U.S. dollar index decreased following the Bessent pick late Friday.

"Supporters will argue that Mr. Bessent's career as a macro investor will provide him with an ability to understand the knock-on effects of President Trump's trade, tariff, tax, and deregulatory agenda," said Ed Mills, Raymond James Washington policy analyst, in a note to clients. "If Mr. Bessent can delay or limit an across-the-board tariff policy, while extending tax cuts, pushing deregulation (that increases energy production), all support U.S.-based industries — all supporting U.S. GDP growth — that would be cheered on by the market."

U.S. markets are closed Thursday due to the Thanksgiving holiday and close early on Friday, so trading volume is likely to be light this week.

Despite this week's shortened trading week, the interest rate outlook is back in focus. In this vein, investors will monitor the release of October's personal consumption expenditure price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure, on Wednesday. Minutes from the Fed's most recent policy meeting are also due out ahead of Thanksgiving.

Bath & Body Works jumped more than 11% in premarket trading after besting expectations of analysts polled by LSEG on both lines. Macy's, Nordstrom, Best Buy, CrowdStrike and Dell Technologies are among well-known companies posting earnings results on Tuesday.

Bath & Body Works pops on earnings beat

Bath & Body Works shares surged more than 11% in Monday premarket trading after third-quarter earnings topped Wall Street expectations.

The fragrance-focused retailer reported 49 cents in earnings per share, excluding items, on revenue of $1.61 billion. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had forecast just 47 cents a share and $1.58 billion, respectively.

This report comes amid a tough year for the stock. Shares are down nearly 29% in 2024.

— Alex Harring

MicroStrategy surges after big price target hike

MicroStrategy shares popped 7% in the premarket after a big price target increase from Bernstein. The firm cited the company's huge Bitcoin holdings as a catalyst for the updated forecast.

"We believe, Bitcoin is in a structural bull market with conducive regulation and U.S government support, institutional adoption and favorable macro (low rates, inflation risk and record fiscal debt)," the firm said. "MSTR's debt is long term, unsecured convertible, implying negligible risk to balance sheet liquidity from Bitcoin volatility."

— Sean Conlon

European markets open in the green

European markets opened higher Monday, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 index adding around 0.5% shortly after trading began.

Sectors broadly traded higher as household goods and autos stocks led gains, both adding around 1.3%. Healthcare and retail stocks, meanwhile, were the only sectors to pull back, dipping by around 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.

Regional bourses were higher, with France's CAC 40 adding close to 1%, Germany's DAX rising 0.7% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 climbing 0.4%.

— Sophie Kiderlin

Australia notches record highs as Asia markets mostly rise

Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose Monday, with Australia's S&P/ASX 200 hitting fresh highs.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.28% to close at 8,417.6, hitting a new all-time closing high. The index also reached a new intraday high of 8,462.1 during the trading session.

On Monday, Singapore released its inflation figures for October. The country's headline inflation rate fell to 1.4%, the lowest rate of inflation since March 2021.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 1.3% up, ending at 38,780.14, while the broad-based Topix rose 0.71% to 2,715.6.

In contrast, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 0.3% in its last hour of trade, while mainland China's CSI 300 was down 0.46% to close at 3,848.09.

— Lim Hui Jie

Dollar index falls Sunday night

The dollar index declined 0.6% to 106.92 on Sunday. This marks a slight pullback from the index's 0.8% gain last week, during which it hit a one-year high.

The greenback also strengthened to its highest level since July against the yen last week. The dollar was last down 0.1% versus the yen at 154.17.

— Hakyung Kim

Stock futures open higher

U.S. stock futures started trading in the green Sunday night.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 150 points, or 0.4%. Futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 also gained 0.4% each.

— Hakyung Kim