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U.S. stock index futures rose on Friday after Wall Street welcomed Amazon and Apple earnings reports amid hopes for a slower pace of Federal Reserve interest rate rises.
How are stock-index futures trading
-
S&P 500 futures
ES00,
+0.61%
added 30 points, or 0.7%, to 4103 -
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
YM00,
+0.20%
rose 72 points, or 0.2%, to 32562 -
Nasdaq 100 futures
NQ00,
+0.94%
gained 171 points, or 1.3%, to 12908
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
rose 332 points, or 1.03%, to 32530, the S&P 500
SPX,
increased 49 points, or 1.21%, to 4072, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
gained 130 points, or 1.08%, to 12163. The S&P 500 is up 7.6% for the month, but remains down 14.6% for the year-to-date.
What’s driving markets
Wall Street was looking to register a third day of gains in a row as traders reacted favorably to results from two of tech’s biggest beasts; Apple
AAPL,
up 2.7% in pre-market action, and Amazon
AMZN,
which is surging 11.9% .
See: Amazon stock jumps 14% as sales beat and AWS growth overcome a second straight quarterly loss
“After the close [on Thursday] Apple and Amazon reported earnings on the stronger side of what we’ve seen for mega-caps so far, with both releases containing optimism around supply chains and consumer spending,” said strategists at Deutsche Bank.
See: Apple says macro issues aren’t hurting iPhone business as earnings top expectations
The news adds to a mostly well-received second quarter U.S. corporate earnings season. With nearly half the companies having reported, the S&P 500 has so far seen a blended profits growth rate of 7.6%, with 76% beating profit forecasts, according to Refinitiv.
“If you think corporate earnings will either remain strong or rebound quickly from any recession, then stocks are modestly attractive here. Equities are an optimist’s game, and this bullish narrative may have some legs here. We are more in the ‘realist’ camp at the moment and remain somewhat cautious,” said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek.
Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, noted that adding to the positive mood in global equities was Thursday’s weaker than expected U.S. GDP numbers, which were seen reducing the pace of Federal Reserve interest rate rises.
“Yes bad news is good! [Fed chair] Powell did say the next hike will be data-dependent; will this be a leading indicator to a moderating Fed path or a selling opportunity into a bear rally?” Innes added.
With that in mind, traders will be keeping an eye on data released Friday that are closely scrutinized by the Fed. The Q2 employment cost index and June personal income price and consumption numbers will be published at 8.30 a.m. Eastern.
The University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey is due for release at 10 a.m. Eastern.
The weak GDP figures caused bond yields and the dollar to move lower, but on Friday the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield
TMUBMUSD10Y,
was up 1.7 basis points to 2.693%. The U.S. dollar remains under pressure, the dollar index
DXY,
dipping 0.6% to 105.73.
How are other assets faring
-
Oil futures were higher with U.S. crude
CL.1,
+2.30%
adding 1.8% to $98.17 a barrel. -
Gold
GC00,
+0.46%
is benefitting from the softer greenback, the yellow metal adding 0.8% to $1,763 an ounce. -
Bitcoin
BTCUSD,
-1.03%
fell 0.5% to $23,895.
