U.S. stock futures pointed to brighter start on Friday to wrap up a difficult week, buoyed by well-received results from megacap tech stock Amazon.com.
What’s happening
-
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
YM00,
+0.33%
rose 95 points, or 0.3%, to 32971 -
S&P 500 futures
ES00,
+0.61%
gained 23 points, or 0.6%, to 4180 -
Nasdaq 100 futures
NQ00,
+0.94%
increased 122 points, or 0.9%, to 14316
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
fell 252 points, or 0.76%, to 32784, the S&P 500
SPX
declined 50 points, or 1.18%, to 4137, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP
dropped 226 points, or 1.76%, to 12596.
Through Thursday, the S&P 500 has dropped by 2.1% this week. According to UBS, two-thirds of S&P 500 constituents have seen their share price fall since last Friday.
What’s driving markets
Amazon.com
AMZN,
reported earnings ahead of expectations, that showed the company’s progress in lifting margins, both in its retail business and in cloud. Intel
INTC,
also beat estimates.
“A combination of solid post-market U.S. tech (Amazon/Intel) earnings last night and less weak than expected industrial profits in China earlier this morning are helping lift global risk sentiment with stocks in all geographies trading in the green,” said Krupa Patel, head of international market intelligence at JPMorgan.
China reported that industrial profits grew 11.9% year-over-year in September.
The earnings news however wasn’t universally positive, with Ford Motor Co.
F,
withdrawing guidance, and Enphase Energy
ENPH,
becoming the latest solar company to issue a profit warning.
Crude-oil futures
CL.1,
rose after a U.S. strike on Iran-related facilities in Syria.
The economics calendar for Friday includes the PCE price index, the Fed’s favored inflation measure, which at the core level is expected to rise by 0.3% on a monthly basis. While the Fed next week isn’t expected to change interest rates, the focus will be on the commentary it delivers about the possibility of hiking rates further in December.
“Strong economic data releases are likely to continue to generate market choppiness until investors are confident that the economy is cooling but not collapsing and the rate shock is over. We think both developments are likely in the fourth quarter,” said analysts led by Mark Haefele, chief investment officer for UBS global wealth management.
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