Inventory futures rise barely earlier than the primary day of buying and selling in August

Traders operate on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on July 21, 2021.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

US stock futures rose slightly in overnight trading on Sunday as investors prepared for the first day of trading in August.

Dow futures rose 80 points. S&P 500 futures gained 0.25% and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.2%.

The big averages saw their sixth month of profits in July, despite heightened volatility amid concerns over economic recovery amid the spreading Delta-Covid variant. The Nasdaq Composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.2% and 1.3% respectively in July, while the broad S&P 500 gained nearly 2.3% last month.

Inflation worries also plagued the market, but a key inflation indicator on Friday showed lower price pressure than feared. The core price index of private consumption expenditure rose by 3.5% in June compared to the previous year. It marked a sharp acceleration in inflation, but was slightly below the Dow Jones forecast of a 3.6% increase.

Also on Friday, the US gross domestic product accelerated in the second quarter by 6.5% on an annual basis, significantly less than the growth rate of 8.4% expected by Dow Jones.

On the profit front, Amazon fell nearly 7.6% on Friday after the tech giant reported its first quarterly loss of revenue in three years and issued weaker forecasts.

The first day of trading in August falls during the heat of the profit season. Lyft, Amgen, Uber, CVS Health, General Motors, Roku and Square are all reporting quarterly results this week.

Of the 59% of the S&P 500 companies that reported for the second quarter, 88% exceeded consensus earnings expectations, according to FactSet.