Stock futures rose Monday, with investors looking to build on the S&P 500′s fresh all-time high from Friday. Futures tied to the benchmark S&P 500 added 0.4%, while Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.7%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 96 points, or 0.3%. Stocks roared back to life on Friday after losing ground earlier in the week. The S&P 500 broke both its intraday and closing record from January 2022, ending the day at 4,839.81. Friday’s gain officially signaled that Wall Street is indeed in a bull market that started in October 2022. The blue-chip Dow and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also finished last week higher, with all three major indexes now in the green so far in 2024. Wall Street’s strength will seemingly depend on whether the U.S. central bank will capture a soft landing, which in when the economy can be cooled without being tipped into a recession. Investors are hoping for a series of benchmark interest rate cuts beginning in March, although they are less sure the initial cut will come to fruition. Traders are now pricing in a roughly 46% chance of a Fed rate cut in March, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool. That marks a steep decrease from almost 81% a week earlier. There’s a nearly 54% likelihood that the central bank will keep rates steady, up from around 19% one week prior. Investors will be closely watching a slate of economic reports due out this week, including gross domestic product data on Thursday and the personal consumption expenditures prices on Friday. Both reports could provide insight into how central bank policymakers view monetary policy moving forward. U.S. Treasury yields pulled back on Monday as investors geared up for another big week of economic data. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was down around 5 basis points at 4.094%. Last week, it reached levels last seen in December. The yield on the 2-year Treasury bond slid around 2 basis points to 4.385. Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Monday as China kept its loan prime rates unchanged, as expected. The Nikkei 225 hit a near 34-year high to end 1.62% higher at 36,546.95, while the broader Topix gained 1.39% to close at 2,544.92. On the other hand, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 2.52%, led by real estate stocks after the People’s Bank of China left the one- and five-year loan prime rates left unchanged at 3.45% and 4.2%, respectively. China’s CSI 300 index ended 1.56% lower at 3,218.90. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 ended 0.75% higher at 7,476.60, extending gains from Friday and starting the week on a positive note. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.34% to close at 2,464.35 while the small-cap Kosdaq dropped 0.35% to 839.69. South Korea will also release its gross domestic product figures for the fourth quarter of 2023 on Wednesday. Oil prices were little changed on Monday as the market weighed the reopening of a key oilfield in Libya against ongoing tensions in the Middle East. The West Texas Intermediate futures contract for February gained 33 cents or 0.45%, to trade at $73.74 a barrel. The Brent contract for March rose 8 cents, or .1%, to trade at $78.64 a barrel. Gold prices declined on Monday, as hopes of a March interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve faded, while traders awaited key U.S. economic data and major central bank policy meetings this week. Spot gold was fractionally down at $2,028.88 per ounce. U.S. gold futures added 0.1% to $2,031.1.