Investing.com – U.S. futures pointed to higher opening on Monday as investors look to bitcoin futures.
The S&P 500 futures was up two points or 0.08% as of 6:48 AM ET (11:48 GMT) while Dow futures increased 48 points or 0.20% Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures rose seven points or 0.12%.
Bitcoin will be on investors minds today, after the cryptocurrency started trading on the CBOE Futures Exchange on Sunday. The new Bitcoin Futures surged over 20% within hours of launching, causing a temporary outage to the trading website. The futures price has already surged over $17,000.
Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) was among the biggest gainers in pre-market trading, rising 0.67% while banking firm Santander (MC:SAN) was up 0.15% and mining company Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) surged 1.76%. Steel firm Arcelormittal (AS:MT) increased 1.18%.
Elsewhere, telecommunications firm Nokia (HE:NOKIA) was flat after it announced its chief operating officer would step down. Pharmaceutical stocks were mostly down, with firm Teva Pharma Industries Ltd ADR (NYSE:TEVA) dipping down 0.37% while VistaGen Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTGN) slipped 22.22% and Zealand Pharma A/S ADR (NASDAQ:ZEAL) was down 1.21%.
On the data front, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data comes out at 10:00 AM ET (15:00 GMT). Meanwhile investors are looking ahead to the Federal Open Market Committee meeting, which starts on Tuesday. An interest rate hike is highly anticipated.
Stocks in Europe were mostly down. Germany’s DAX fell five points or 0.04% while in France the CAC 40 decreased six points or 0.11% and in London, the FTSE 100 was up 41 points or 0.57%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 fell nine points or 0.26% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 27 points or 0.26%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.30% to $1,252.20 a troy ounce while crude oil futures was down 0.35% to $57.16 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, inched down 0.07% to 93.77.