us stock futures hold near sevenweek highs with traders wary of looming catalysts on monday the dow jones industrial average djia rose 327 points or 098 to 33601 the sp 500 spx increased 15 points or 037 to 4125 and the nasdaq composite comp dropped 32 points or 027 to 12189  calmer conditions in energy and bond markets and the looming catalysts of jobs data and company earnings are so far discouraging equity investors from making bold bets early on tuesday the sp 500 sits at a sevenweek high up 74 so far this year as traders have absorbed the prospects of an economic slowdown in the wake of tremors in the banking sector and tighter credit conditions preferring to celebrate the lower interest rates that may result a jump in oil prices cl1 at the start of the week following a surprise supply cut by producers which may have added to inflationary pressures and thus forced interest rates higher for longer was counteracted the same day by news of weakening us factory activity “for investors keen to see an end to the monetary tightening environment…us manufacturing activity dipped to its lowest level in almost three years in march with new orders slumping amid the possibility of further falls if the expected credit tightening from banks washes through” said stephen hunter head of markets at interactive investor the new session sees treasury yields tmubmusd10y only a few basis points higher and us crude prices up less than a buck per barrel encouraging investors to sit on their hands is a week shortened for the good friday holiday the monthly nonfarm payrolls reports will still be published on that day and traders will be wary of being badly positioned and not able to immediately react then next week sees the start of the firstquarter corporate earnings season possibly another reason for caution further dissuading bullish bets is that the sp 500 is getting near the top of the 3800 to 4200 trading range in which it has vacillated for more than five months and futures on the stock benchmark currently around 4150 face significant resistance just above the 4175 level according to strategists at saxo bank “so the question is whether us equities will soon lose momentum…the breadth of the market has been quite narrow with mega caps doing the major heavy lifting of indices this is probably as good as it gets for now in equities as equity valuations are getting stretched as more and more signs are showing that the real estate sector is slowing down dramatically which will impact credit transmission in the economy” said saxo us economic updates set for release on tuesday include factory orders and job openings both for february and both released at 10 am eastern cleveland fed president mester is due to make comments at 6 pm