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Peabody Energy ( BTU ) falls; to buy Anglo American's coal mines

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Robinhood gains after brokerage upgrade

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Futures up: Dow 0.70%, S&P 500 0.51%, Nasdaq 0.57%

(Updates with quote, prices)

By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal

Nov 25 (Reuters) -

Dow contracts touched a record high on Monday and led gains

among U.S. stock index futures, on investor optimism driven by

Scott Bessent's nomination as Treasury Secretary in the incoming

Trump administration.

President-elect Donald Trump ended weeks of speculation when

he named his choice late on Friday, with some investment

strategists saying Bessent could take measures to restrain

further government borrowing, even as he follows through on

fiscal and trade campaign pledges.

"The beauty of this nomination is that Bessent is a fiscal

conservative. This sets the stage for more fiscal discipline,

which the market is really going to welcome," said Joe McCann,

CEO at Asymmetric in Miami.

Futures tracking the domestically focused small-caps index

rose 1% as the yield on 30-year Treasury bonds

led declines across the curve.

Yields on Treasury bonds had surged after Trump's

victory on expectations that his policies, considered broadly

positive for economic growth and large corporates, could stoke

inflationary pressures and slow down the pace of the Federal

Reserve's monetary policy easing.

"Bessent is seen as being less aggressive on tariffs than

some of the rhetoric espoused by Trump. A fall in bond yields in

response to his unveiling suggests some concerns about a new

wave of inflationary pressures from import tariffs have eased,"

said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

At 06:54 a.m., Dow E-minis were up 312 points, or

0.70%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 30.75 points, or 0.51%

and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 118.5 points, or 0.57%.

Big banks gained, with Wells Fargo ( WFC ) up 1.1% and

Morgan Stanley ( MS ) adding 1.2% in premarket trading, while

popular 'Trump trade' Tesla rose 2.2%.

Among megacaps, Alphabet and Amazon.com ( AMZN )

rose 0.8% and 0.9%, respectively.

The benchmark S&P 500 crossed 6,000 points for the

first time days after the election verdict and has jumped more

than 4% since Nov. 4. The Russell 2000 index has surged

more than 8% during the same period and both indexes are near

their respective record highs.

Brokerage Barclays raised its full-year 2025 forecast for

the S&P 500 to 6,600 points from 6,500.

Expectations for what the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy move

is likely to be in December, on the back of a resilient economy,

have recently swayed between a pause and a cut. The CME Group's

FedWatch Tool shows a near 56% probability the central bank will

lower borrowing costs by 25 basis points.

The Personal Consumption Expenditure report, the central

bank's preferred inflation gauge, will be on investors' radar

this Thanksgiving week, along with the latest estimate on gross

domestic product and minutes from the Fed's policy meeting

earlier this month.

Crypto stocks such as MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) advanced 5.4%,

MARA Holdings ( MARA ) rose 4.8% and Coinbase added

1.4%, with bitcoin prices just shy of the $100,000 mark.

Peabody Energy ( BTU ) dropped 7% after Anglo American

decided to sell its remaining Australian steelmaking

coal mines to the company for up to $3.78 billion in cash.

Retail trading platform Robinhood Markets advanced

3.9% after Morgan Stanley ( MS ) upgraded its stock to "overweight"

from "equal-weight".