U.S. equity index futures indicated the S&P 500 could grind to another record high on Friday, with the technology sector likely to see a third-straight winning session, as a fresh batch of economic data loomed.
How stock-index futures are trading
- S&P 500 futures ES00, +0.20% rose 5 points to 5,051.50
- Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YM00, -0.10% fell 45 points, or 0.1%, to 38,813
- Nasdaq-100 futures NQ00, +0.59% climbed 85.75 points, or 0.4%, to 17,998.50
On Thursday, the S&P 500 SPX rose 0.6% to 5,029.73, just surpassing its record close reached last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA gained 0.9% to 38,773.12 and the Nasdaq Composite COMP climbed 0.3%, to 15,906.17.
What’s driving markets
Thursday’s fresh S&P 500 index record came amid mixed manufacturing data and a hefty fall in January retail sales, which soothed some expectations about the pace of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, following a jarring inflation report earlier in the week.
“But if retail sales had remained strong, investors would’ve been as happy to see the U.S. economy land soft,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst | at Swissquote Bank.
“We are coming to a point where the economic data becomes meaningless. Whatever the data prints, the U.S. stock markets find a positive narrative to keep the rally going. It’s, of course, blind optimism; investors are blinded by the brilliance of the rate cuts at the tunnel’s end,” she said.
Another busy day of data was ahead for investors, kicking off with January housing starts and the producer price index which is expected to slip 0.1%, both due at 8:30 a.m. The University of Michigan preliminary consumer sentiment survey for February is due at 10 a.m.
Fed Vice Chair for Supervision, Michael Barr, is scheduled to speak at 9:10 a.m., followed later by San Francisco President Mary Daly at 12:10 p.m.
Technology stocks were out ahead on Friday, with the Nasdaq set for a third-straight positive session, but down 0.5% for the week as of Thursday.
Shares of Applied Materials Inc. AMAT, +0.79% surged 13% in premarket trading after the chip-equipment company delivered upbeat results and guidance after Thursday’s close. Among other big sector names, shares of Tesla Inc. TSLA, +6.22% rose 2% in premarket trade, with Nvidia Corp. NVDA, -1.68% up 1.5%. Nvidia is expected to report fourth-quarterly results next week.