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(Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures crept higher on Friday, setting the Dow on track for its tenth straight day of gains, while megacap growth and technology stocks recovered after sharp losses in the previous session.
The S&P 500 and the Dow were on track to end the week higher after Dow on Thursday outperformed others, notching its longest winning streak in almost six years, supported by gains in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) on strong forecast.
Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq lagged in the previous session as earnings reports from Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) failed to dazzle.
The megacap electric automaker recovered 1.1% in premarket trading on Friday, while the streaming video company edged higher.
The NYSE FANG+TM index that houses the megacap growth names also closed 4.6% lower in the previous session, notching its worst day so far in 2023.
The Nasdaq has risen 34.4% this year, supported by a sharp rally in megacap growth and technology names on optimism over artificial intelligence, a relatively resilient U.S. economy and expectations the end of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hike cycle was on the horizon.
While the Fed is widely expected to go for a 25 basis point hike at its July 25-26 meeting next week, market participants have been mixed as to where it will go in the ensuing months.
“We expect Powell to cautiously avoid implying that the FOMC has already reached an agreement, but (we) are confident that he does want to slow the pace and that the FOMC will end up skipping in September,” said David Mericle, chief U.S. economist at Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), in a note.
At 7:11 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 13 points, or 0.04%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 11 points, or 0.24%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 73.75 points, or 0.47%.
Toymaker Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT)’s shares added 1.5% as the much-anticipated “Barbie” film debuted in theaters globally.
American Express (NYSE:AXP) fell 2% after the credit card giant’s unchanged forecast for full-year profit unnerved investors, overshadowing quarterly results that topped estimates on record card member spending.
SLB slipped 1.4% even as the top oilfield services firm posted upbeat quarterly profit as a rebound in offshore and international drilling activity boosted demand for its equipment.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) has raised U.S. economic growth forecast for the year on a strong industrial sector and more public investment in infrastructure and expects a more “comfortable” soft-landing for the economy.
Investors were also awaiting a special rebalancing of the multi-trillion dollar Nasdaq 100, which is due at the close of trading on Friday.
