Futures declined Monday as the U.S. dollar shot up to a three-month high against the yen after the Japanese government intervened in the market to curb its currency's appreciation.
The dollar hit a three-month high versus the Japanese yen this morning, following the intervention by the Bank of Japan. The day's increase is the biggest one-day move by the dollar against the yen in almost three years.
Still, Wall Street is on track to post some impressive October numbers ahead of the month's final trading day, though creeping doubts about the European debt crisis solution could scale back some of those milestones in the day ahead.
At this point, the Dow is poised to post its best monthly point gain on record and its best monthly percentage gain since January 1987. The S&P 500 is on track for its second best monthly gain ever, trailing only October 1974.
The week ahead promises to be an eventful one, with another flood of corporate earnings, as well as a two-day Fed policy meeting and the October employment report.
reported a 5 percent rise in underlying quarterly profit early on Monday morning, with pre-tax profit to end-September of 2.4 billion pounds ($3.9 billion). However, top-line growth at investment bank arm Barclays Capital, fell 22 percent, quarter-on-quarter.