Stock futures up, dollar down, as Summers bows out

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Former Treasury secretary Larry Summers' withdrawal from consideration for the top Federal Reserve job sent U.S. stock futures jumping and the dollar falling on Sunday. Following the news that Summers had dropped out, the ICE dollar index DXY -0.44%  , which measures the U.S. currency against six others, fell from around the 81.50 level to 81.110 by the early evening in North America. Meanwhile, U.S. stock-index futures jumped, with the contract for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +0.49%  up 1.2%, and futures for the S&P 500 SPX +0.27%  rallying 1.1%. Some analysts saw Summers as likely to be more hawkish in terms of policy compared to current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, while his top rival, current Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen was seen as dovish. "It's widely believed she [Yellen] will continue Bernanke's pro-growth policies, if not taking a more aggressive stance," wrote Rivkin analyst Tim Radford in reaction to the news. "By Summers pulling out of the race there is now a great deal of certainty over the future of U.S. Federal Reserve monetary policy moving forward," he said.