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Futures up: Dow 0.68%, S&P 500 0.48%, Nasdaq 0.55%

Nov 25 (Reuters) - Dow contracts touched a record high

on Monday, leading gains among U.S. stock index futures, fueled

by investor optimism over Scott Bessent's nomination as Treasury

Secretary.

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 the president-elect's

fiscal and trade pledges.

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

conservative. Now this sets the stage for more fiscal

discipline, which the market is really going to welcome. His

background is in FX trading and in fixed income, including

global fixed income, which is another plus," said Joe McCann,

CEO at Asymmetric in Miami.

At 05:08 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 302 points,

or 0.68%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 28.5 points, or 0.48%

and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 114.75 points, or 0.55%.

Futures tracking the domestically focused small-caps index

rose 1.2% as the yield on 30-year Treasury bonds

led declines across the curve.

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%.

Among megacaps, Alphabet and Amazon.com ( AMZN )

rose 0.75% each.

Yields on Treasury bonds had spiked after Trump's victory on

expectations that his policies, although 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.

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 the Federal Reserve's policy move in

December have recently swayed between a pause and a cut. The CME

Group's FedWatch Tool shows a 56.2% probability the central bank

will lower borrowing costs by 25 basis points.

Investors will focus on the Personal Consumption Expenditure

report, the central bank's preferred inflation gauge, later in

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 6%,

MARA Holdings ( MARA ) rose 4.6% and Coinbase added

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

Peabody Energy ( BTU ) dropped 5.1% after Anglo American

decided to sell its remaining Australian steelmaking

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

Snowflake was up 3.6% after brokerage Wedbush

raised its rating on the stock to "outperform" from "neutral".