Dow Jones Today: Stock Futures Rise After Big-Tech Earnings as October Jobs Report Looms
Stock futures are higher Friday as investors digest a fresh batch of results from large technology companies and await economic data that will play a big role in the Federal Reserve’s upcoming decision on interest rates.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were each up 0.4% in recent trading, while Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.5%. Stocks closed sharply lower on Thursday, led by a sell-off in tech stocks after a busy few days of earnings releases.
Yesterday’s downturn pushed the major indexes into negative territory for the month of October. It was the first time since July that the Nasdaq didn’t record a monthly gain, while the S&P 500 and Dow had five-month winning streaks snapped.
The big event this morning is the October jobs report from the Labor Department, which is scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. ET. Forecasters expect the U.S. economy to have added 110,000 jobs in October, one of the slowest months of job creation in more than three years. Investors are watching all the data points closely as they look for signs that the economy remains on sound footing, as well as information that could influence the Fed’s decision on interest rates next week.
Tech stocks were mostly higher in premarket trading Friday, led by Amazon (AMZN), which was up more than 7% after the company reported strong results driven by growth in its cloud and advertising businesses. Shares of Intel (INTC) were up more than 6% after the beleaguered chipmaker reported revenue that topped Wall Street expectations. AI investor favorite Nvidia (NVDA) was up about 1.5%, while Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META) and Alphabet (GOOGL) were also rebounding from yesterday’s losses.
Apple (AAPL) was bucking the tech sector recovery this morning after its quarterly earnings came in shy of expectations. Apple shares were down nearly 2% in recent trading.
Outside the tech sector, shares of ExxonMobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) were both up about 2% this morning after the oil majors released their quarterly results. Boeing (BA) shares were also up about 2% after the plane maker reached a tentative deal with its machinists union on a new contract, potentially ending a crippling seven-week strike.
The yield on 10-year Treasurys, which is sensitive to expectations around interest rates, was up slightly at 4.30% this morning. The yield has been rising in recent weeks as market participants have recalibrated their thinking about how aggressive the Fed will be in cutting its benchmark lending rate.
Gold futures were up slightly at around $2,760 an ounce, after rising above $2,800 earlier this week for the first time ever. Bitcoin was little changed at around $70,000.