©Reuters. Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., March 20, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
By Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Shashwat Chauhan
(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures rose on Friday, setting Wall Street on course for strong weekly gains, as investors cheered the Federal Reserve’s continued rate-easing stance and awaited comments from Chairman Jerome Powell in course of the day.
All three major US indexes hit new record highs in the previous session, as stocks rallied following an upbeat forecast from Micron Technology (NASDAQ:) and the Fed signaled it was still on track for three rate cuts of interest this year.
According to CME’s FedWatch tool, traders now see a 70% chance of the first rate cut coming in June, up from 56% earlier this week.
“The Federal Reserve sent a pretty clear message earlier this week that some resilience in activity data will not be a barrier to cuts as long as inflation shows downward momentum,” the strategist wrote in a morning note FX by ING, Francesco Pesole.
Investors will also be closely monitoring comments from a number of other central bankers expected throughout the day for further guidance on the trajectory of the central bank’s monetary policy.
The blue-chip Dow closed within 1% of the 40,000 mark on Thursday for the first time. Along with the benchmark, the Dow was on track to achieve its best weekly performance this year.
Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq was set to post its best week since mid-January.
As of 7 a.m. ET, they were up 39 points, or 0.1%, they were up 6 points, or 0.11%, and they were up 13.75 points, or 0.07% .
Most rate-sensitive technology and mega-cap growth stocks advanced in premarket trading.
Tesla (NASDAQ:), however, fell 3.0% following news that the electric vehicle maker would reduce car production at its factory in China.
Nonetheless, the electric vehicle maker and many other market leaders were set to post strong weekly gains. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index gained nearly 3% this week.
Nike (NYSE:) fell 6.3% after the world’s largest sportswear maker warned that its revenue in the first half of fiscal 2025 will shrink by a single-digit percentage as it scales back franchises to save on costs. costs.
Lululemon Athletics (NASDAQ:) forecast lower-than-expected annual revenue and profit as demand declines for the apparel retailer’s premium athleisure, mostly in North America, sending its shares down 12.4%.
Social media platform Reddit lost 3.7% on the day after its strong market debut.
FedEx (NYSE:) advanced 12.6% after the company beat Wall Street expectations for quarterly profit and operating margin at the package delivery company’s largest unit, Express, which rose 2. 5% in the February fiscal quarter compared to 1.2% a year ago.
While most S&P 500 companies won’t release current quarter reports until after mid-April, investors are likely to pay close attention to earnings that come in earlier for clues about how the rest of the season will go.