Wall Street set to recover from sharp weekly losses

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., August 27, 2021. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File photo

By Ambar Warrick and Devik Jain

(Reuters) -Wall Street indexes were set to rise on Monday after their worst week in several months, with investors keeping a tab on the impact of potential changes to taxation on corporate profits and the effects of inflation on monetary policy.

The indexes lost between 1.6% to 2.2% last week, with the S&P 500 sinking for five straight days as a surge in August producer prices and a drop in jobless claims spurred fears the Federal Reserve could start unwinding stimulus as soon as this year.

The August consumer price data, which is due on Tuesday, is also likely to be an important cue for the Fed's decision on tightening policy. A Reuters poll expects the reading to be steady from July.

"There's some inflation numbers coming out this week and the market will be looking through to next week's Fed meeting just to get an indication of color with the jobs report," said Thomas Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital in New York.

"Expectations are now that the September meeting will be inconsequential, in that they'll just punt to November on any concrete plans for taper."

Also on the radar is the Biden government's corporate tax hike plan. U.S. House Democrats are expected to propose raising corporate tax rate to 26.5% from 21%, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) analysts predicted that a hike in the U.S. domestic corporate tax rate to 25% and the passage of about half of a proposed increase to tax rates on foreign income would reduce S&P 500 earnings by 5% in 2022.

Investors will also be watching retail sales data later this week for more cues on how much a recent rise in COVID-19 cases has affected consumer spending.

S&P 500 E-minis were up 25.5 points, or 0.58% at 08:29 am ET. Dow E-minis were up 181 points, or 0.52%, while Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 88.5 points, or 0.57%.

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose 1.2% in premarket trading after a mixed court ruling in Epic Games' antitrust case against the iPhone maker knocked nearly $90 billion off its market value on Friday.

Energy stocks benefited from stronger oil prices, while major Wall Street banks tracked mild gains in U.S. Treasury yields.

Buying into sectors such as energy, financials and industrials, which are expected to benefit from an economic recovery this year, has put the S&P 500 on a seven-month winning streak this year.

But rising infections of the Delta COVID-19 variant and staggered vaccination rates have dampened hopes of an economic recovery in recent weeks.

Market participants expect stocks to undergo a major correction by the end of the year after a strong bull run.

Biotechnology firm Regenxbio Inc surged more than 20% after it entered a partnership with peer AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) to develop and sell a gene therapy candidate for the treatment of chronic retinal diseases.

U.S.-listed Chinese stocks, including Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) Group Holding, fell in premarket trading after China outlined new regulations for major technology firms in the mainland.