S&P 500 Futures gain half a percent as US Senators discuss infrastructure spending

• S&P 500 Futures ignore Friday’s pullback from record top, grinds higher of late.
• Republican Senator Rob Portman hints $550 billion in new spending.
• Democratic leaders ask President Biden to extend the moratorium on housing evictions.
• US-China jitters, covid updates and PMIs are extra catalysts to watch.

S&P 500 Futures pick up bids around 4,410, up 0.50% intraday, as policymakers haggle over President Joe Biden’s infrastructures spending bill on early Monday in Asia.

After wrangling over the bill on Sunday, Senators have introduced the bill on the floor, per a Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, per Reuters.

The piece also mentioned, “US house democratic leaders ask biden administration to extend the moratorium on housing evictions through October 18.” Reuters also said, “Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, said the bill included $550 billion in new spending. This was expected to go to projects including roads, rail, electric vehicle charging stations and lead water pipe replacements on top of $450 billion in previously approved funds.”

Read: $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill on Senate floor

It’s worth noting that the policymakers’ expectations that the plan will be through the Senate during this week, per Reuters, improve market sentiment even as the coronavirus conditions and the US-China tussles continue.

Talking about the covid conditions, virus numbers in the UK and the US ease but Delta covid strain woes remain intact in Australia and Japan. Additionally, the recently slowing inoculation in Asia-Pacific also raises challenges for the market sentiment.

Elsewhere, the US and Chinese regulators jostle over Beijing-backed companies listing and public offering norms with the latter seemed more hopeful.

The US-UK allegations over Iran for Thursday’s attack on an Israeli ship and recently soft PMI data from China were extra catalysts, not to forget Japan’s pension fund’s cut in US bond weight, that tried to roil the market’s mood but have failed so far amid a quiet session in Asia.

Looking forward, market players will be more interested in directing monetary policy moves of RBA, BOE and the Fed, for which activity and jobs numbers will be the key to follow during the week.

Read: Forex Today: Dollar to remain on the losing side