Futures rise as focus turns to Fed’s inflation stance By Reuters

By Medha Singh

(Reuters) – hit a record high on Monday as focus shifted to the Federal Reserve’s meeting this week, where the central bank is expected to maintain its accommodative stance on monetary policy.

Recent data has indicated that the U.S. economy is regaining momentum but not overheating, taming worries about inflation and sending the to an all-time high.

While the Fed has reassured that any spike in inflation would be transitory, policymakers could begin discussing the tapering of bond buying at the Tuesday-Wednesday meeting. Most analysts, however, don’t expect a decision before the central bank’s annual Jackson Hole, Wyoming, conference in August.

Any shift in the Fed’s dovish rhetoric could upend equity markets. The benchmark has climbed 13% this year while the Dow and the Nasdaq have risen 12.6% and 9.2%, respectively.

At 6:24 a.m. ET, were up 13 points, or 0.04%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 3 points, or 0.07%, and were up 34 points, or 0.24%.

Oil firms Chevron (NYSE:), Marathon Oil Corp (NYSE:), Schlumberger (NYSE:), Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:) and Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:) rose between 0.2% and 1.3% as crude prices hit their highest levels in more than two years. [O/R]

United Airlines Holdings (NASDAQ:) and American Airlines (NASDAQ:) Group rose 0.7% each after Citigroup (NYSE:) raised its price target on the stocks.