U.S. stock futures on Friday pointed to a stronger start, as investors balanced concerns about the economy, regional bank health and the debt ceiling with hopes for new technologies such as artificial intelligence.
- Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YM00, +0.38% rose 114 points, or 0.3%, to 33485.
- S&P 500 futures ES00, +0.36% gained 14 points, or 0.3%, to 4157.
- Nasdaq 100 futures NQ00, +0.20% increased 28 points, or 0.2%, to 13474.
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.66% fell 222 points, or 0.66%, to 33310, the S&P 500 SPX, -0.17% declined 7 points, or 0.17%, to 4131, and the Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.18% gained 22 points, or 0.18%, to 12329. The 9% slide in Dow component Walt Disney DIS, -8.73% was a particular weight on the blue-chip index.
What’s driving markets
Also weighing on stocks on Thursday was that regional banks continued to struggle, with PacWest Bancorp PACW, -22.73% reporting a big drop in deposits for the week ending May 5. Data released after the close showed that increased usage of both the Fed’s discount window and its new facility allowing banks to borrow against bonds that have fallen in value.
The market is also worried about the impending debt-ceiling limit, as a meeting between President Joe Biden and top Congressional leaders was delayed.
The outlook for Friday, which according to Goldman Sachs has been the best-performing day of the week for the S&P 500 this year, looked stronger without much in the way of new economic data or earnings.
The University of Michigan releases its consumer sentiment index, after data on Thursday showed rising weekly jobless claims and softer producer price inflation.
Alphabet GOOGL, +4.31% will be in the spotlight after a 4% stock-price gain on Thursday, with a similar gain on Wednesday, in what has been a busy week of AI-related news for the Google parent company. According to Societe Generale, the S&P 500 would be down 2% this year, instead of up 8%, were it not for the AI-popular stocks.