U.S. stocks look set to start the fresh week on a positive note, unperturbed by elevated valuations they have amassed, especially the mega-caps. The index futures were mostly higher in early trading, reacting to the potential removal of uncertainty on the political front. Odds of a victory for presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump spiked higher after Saturday’s shooting incident at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Traders may pay attention to a regional manufacturing reading and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech. Earnings from a couple of key names from the financial space could also evince interest. Futures Performance (+/-) Nasdaq 100 +0.49% S&P 500 +0.42% Dow +0.55% R2K +1.02% In premarket trading on Monday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) rose 0.35% to $561.97 and the Invesco QQQ ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) rose 0.46% to $497.10, according to Benzinga Pro data. Cues From Last Week: Wall Street went about a volatile ride in the week ended July 12 before ending higher. Small-caps outshone their bigger counterparts after Powell soothed nerves with his “seemingly” dovish comments and the June inflation report that showed further thawing in pricing pressure. However, its wholesale counterpart did not turn out to be as benign. The Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 indices clocked records ahead of Thursday’s consumer price inflation report but made a contrarian move by pulling back sharply despite the tame numbers. On Friday, the averages came back up despite the producer price inflation surprising to the upside. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which underperformed the other two major averages, and the Russell 2,000 Index rose for three straight sessions, starting Wednesday. The former reclaimed the 40,000 mark for the first time since mid-May and ...