Market Snapshot: U.S. stock futures rise on relief over Facebook parent’s subscriber numbers as GDP report awaits

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U.S. stock futures pointed to a stronger start on Thursday, boosted by results from Facebook parent Meta Platforms that weren’t as bad as anticipated.

What’s happening
  • Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    YM00,
    +0.73%

    rose 341 points, or 1% to 33567.

  • Futures on the S&P 500
    ES00,
    +1.36%

    gained 69.25 points, or 1.7%, to 4250.

  • Futures on the Nasdaq 100
    NQ00,
    +1.94%

    increased 305.5 points, or 2.4% to 13315.

On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.19%

rose 62 points, or 0.19%, to 33302, the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.21%

increased 9 points, or 0.21%, to 4184, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-0.01%

dropped 2 points, or 0.01%, to 12489.

What’s driving markets

The results from Meta Platforms
FB,
-3.32%

weren’t well ahead of consensus, as revenue actually came in weaker than forecast, but expectations were low given the 48% decline this year in the stock.

In premarket trade, Meta shares stormed 17% higher.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said the Meta results weren’t great, but weren’t horrible either.

Meta’s better-than-forecast subscriber numbers sets the stage for two other megacap tech stock results after the close, Amazon.com
AMZN,
-0.88%

and Apple
AAPL,
-0.15%
.
Though the stock-market decline for Amazon hasn’t been as severe as Meta’s, its stock is just 2% above its 52-week intraday low.

Besides the tech results, investors also will be looking at the first-quarter gross domestic product numbers.

“U.S. GDP data to show notable slowdown – and possible contraction – in first quarter as negative contributions from net trade and inventories offset steady private domestic demand,” said Chris Scicluna, head of economic research for Daiwa Capital Markets Europe.

The yen
USDJPY,
+1.62%

meanwhile slumped to a fresh 20-decade low after the Bank of Japan didn’t alter its easy monetary policy stance.