US stocks open higher, building on gains from last week

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street as the market builds on a rally last week that broke a three-week losing streak. The S&P 500 index was up a bit more than half a percent, as was the Nasdaq composite. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up a little less than half a percent. Investors will be keeping a careful eye on inflation reports this week, including a report Tuesday on inflation in consumer prices during August. The Federal Reserve is expected to make another jumbo rate increase next week in hopes of getting inflation under control.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street pointed higher before the opening bell Monday, building on last week’s strong finish ahead of a host of new inflation data from the U.S.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrials rose 0.3% and futures for the S&P 50 climbed 0.5%.

The U.S. Labor Department will release its report on consumer prices for August on Tuesday and a report on wholesale prices on Wednesday. On Thursday, the Commerce Department releases retail sales figures for August. All three reports could provide a peak into how Americans are reacting to inflation that is close to four-decade highs.

Coronavirus cases are still casting a shadow in China, where about 65 million Chinese were under lockdown as of last week despite just 1,248 new cases of domestic transmission, mostly asymptomatic, being reported on Sunday.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 1.2% to 28,542.11 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was up 1% at 6,964.50. Taiwan's benchmark gained 1.5% while the Sensex in India added 0.6%. Markets in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul were closed for holidays.

Britain’s FTSE 100 climbed 1.3%, as did the CAC 40 in Paris. Germany’s DAX jumped 1.6%.

On Friday, the...