U.S. stocks are stubbornly holding onto their upward momentum, as evidenced by the gains for the index futures early Tuesday. The small-cap rally reflects market hopes that the Fed is getting closer to interest-rate cuts. Bond yields are slipping back amid the expectations. San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly, who spoke after the market close on Monday, said confidence in inflation trending lower is increasing but she remained non-committal on the timing of the first rate cut in the current monetary policy cycle. Traders may also react to the earning news flow and the retail sales report for June, given the latter’s implications for the health of consumer spending – a key growth engine. Futures Performance (+/-) Nasdaq 100 +0.21% S&P 500 +0.15% Dow +0.02% R2K +1.07% In premarket trading on Tuesday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) rose 0.11% to $562.17 and the Invesco QQQ ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) rose 0.16% to $496.96, according to Benzinga Pro data. Cues From Last Session: Wall Street ended Monday’s session higher, with traders reacting to positive earnings and dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The major averages opened on a mixed note but moved uniformly higher after a report showed that the New York region’s manufacturing activity contracted roughly in line with expectations. Although the indices gave back some gains during the mid-session amid Powell’s speech, they held onto the gains. Financial, energy and industrial stocks led ...