Stock futures rose slightly Monday as Wall Street looked to cap off a strong July, and braced for a busy week of earnings. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 66 point, or 0.2%, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.24%. Nasdaq-100 futures added 0.26%. Stocks have rallied this month, with the S&P 500 up 3% and on pace for its fifth positive month in a row for the first time since its seven-month streak ending August 2021. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has gained 3.8% month to date, also on track for its fifth straight winning month. The blue-chip Dow’s jumped 3.1% in July, and a posted a 13-day advance that matched the index’s longest streak of gains going back to 1987 last week. “This bull market is no longer just a mega-cap story. A new chapter of broadening participation has developed,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial. ”Relatively resilient economic data in the U.S., receding inflation pressures and expectations for the end of the Federal Reserve’s rate-hiking campaign have underpinned a notable expansion in market breadth since early June.” Investors have grown increasingly more hopeful about the prospects of a soft landing scenario in recent weeks as economic data shows ongoing strength in the labor market and cooling inflation, and second-quarter earnings continue to come in better than expected. “We anticipated firms would exceed the low bar,” said Goldman Sachs’ David Kostin in a Sunday note. “So far 55% of reporting firms have beaten consensus estimates, above the historical average, and the aggregate year/year EPS decline of 7% is tracking 200 bp better than feared.” Last week, the Fed also hiked rates to their highest level in more than 22 years after passing a much-anticipated quarter-point hike. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank will make data-driven decisions on a “meeting-by-meeting” basis. Along with earnings from names like Amazon, Apple, CVS Health and Starbucks, investors will shift their focus to Friday’s big jobs report. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect the U.S. economy to have added 200,000 jobs in July. Nonfarm payrolls increased 209,000 in June. Asia-Pacific markets rose on Monday as China’s factory activity for July remained in contraction territory for the fourth straight month. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.83% in its final hour of trade, while the Hang Seng Tech index saw a larger climb of 1.87%. At current levels, this would be the first time that the HSI breached the 20,000 mark in over a month. Mainland Chinese markets were all higher as well but pared earlier gains, with the Shanghai Composite up 0.46% to finish at 3,291.04 and the Shenzhen Component 0.75% higher to end at 11,183.91. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.26% to close at 33,172, while the Topix saw a larger rise of 1.39% to end the day at 2,322.56, setting a new 33-year record. The country’s industrial output for June came in lower than expected, registering a 2% growth month on month compared to the 2.4% expected by economists. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.93% to end at 2,632.58 and recorded a third straight day of gains. The Kosdaq climbed 2.25% to close at 935.97, near its 16-month high. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed marginally and closed at 7,410.4, as investors prepare for the Reserve Bank of Australia’s rate decision on Tuesday. Economists polled by Reuters were expecting a 25 basis points hike in its benchmark policy rate to 4.35%. Oil prices were set to post their biggest monthly gains in more than a year on Monday, on expectations that Saudi Arabia will extend voluntary output cuts into September and tighten global supply. Brent crude futures crept 60 cents higher to $85.59 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 84 cents to $81.42 a barrel. The September Brent contract will expire on Monday. The more active October contract edged up 47 cents to $84.88 a barrel. Gold pared losses and was poised for its best month in four on Monday as top central banks switch to a more cautious posture about further moves in their year-long round of global monetary tightening. Spot gold was unchanged at $1,959.50 per ounce by 1132 GMT after slipping as much as 0.5% earlier. U.S. gold futures ticked 0.1% lower to $1,959.30.