(Reuters) – Futures tied to Wall Street’s main indexes climbed on Friday, as dovish signals from Federal Reserve officials and data showing a still-resilient labor market further boosted sentiment.
Chipmaker Nvidia led the gains in megacap technology stocks in the premarket trading, with a 2.5% advance.
Global markets have witnessed extreme turbulence this week following July’s dour jobs data that raised fears of a slowdown in the United States, and a surge in yen after Bank of Japan’s surprise rate hike resulted in unwinding of currency carry trades.
The volatility has since abated, with the CBOE Volatility Index declining to 23.21 points, from a high of 65.73 at the start of the week.
U.S. stocks jumped on Thursday after jobless claims last week fell more than expected, soothing worries that the labor market was rapidly deteriorating. Still, all major indexes were lower for the week, with the Dow Jones down about 0.7%.
Fed policymakers’ comments further supported the gains. They said they were more confident that inflation is cooling enough to allow interest-rate cuts ahead, and will take their cues on the size and timing of those rate cuts from the economic data.
Money markets see a 54.5% chance the Fed will cut interest rates in September by 50 basis points, and expect two more cuts by the end of 2024, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool.
Investors will now look ahead to next week’s readings on the consumer prices and retail sales for July for fresh evidence on chances of a soft landing for the American economy.
At 5:20 a.m. ET, U.S. S&P 500 E-minis were up 22.25 points, or 0.42%, Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 115.25 points, or 0.62%, Dow E-minis were up 88 points, or 0.22%
Among individual stocks, Elf Beauty fell 8% as it forecast annual sales and profit below estimates, and said it would raise product prices if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump comes to power and hikes tariffs on imports from China.
SoundHound AI was up 2.5% after the artificial intelligence (AI) voice provider beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter revenue and raised its full-year revenue forecast.
Take-Two Interactive Software climbed 5.6% as it expects net bookings to grow in fiscal years 2026 and 2027, as the videogame publisher gears up for the launch of its long-awaited “Grand Theft Auto VI” next year.
(Reporting by Shubham Batra in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
