Dow Jones Today: Stock Futures Inch Higher as S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite Look to Add to Records
Stock futures are slightly higher Friday morning as the market looks to close out the first week of earnings-reporting season on a high note.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were all up 0.1% recently. Stocks are coming off a winning session on Thursday, when investor optimism about strong corporate results and better-than-expected economic data boosted the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite to record highs. The Dow enters the day about 1% away from its first new high since December.
Investors will be watching out for data on consumer sentiment that’s due to be released later this morning. Government reports this week on consumer prices and retail sales have shown that the U.S. economy remains resilient, though that strength could reduce the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will be in a position to cut interest rates any time soon.
On the earnings front today, shares of Dow component American Express (AXP) were up about 1% in premarket trading after the payment card giant’s results topped Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom lines. Manufacturing conglomerate 3M (MMM), also in the Dow, added nearly 3% after a strong quarterly report. Shares of Charles Schwab (SCHW) were up 3% after the financial services provider topped analysts’ estimates, while Netflix (NFLX) dropped more than 2% even as the streaming giant reported better-than-anticipated second-quarter numbers and raised its revenue outlook.
Mega-cap technology stocks, which have fueled the market’s run to record highs, were up across the board this morning, though the gains were modest. Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), Meta Platforms (META), Broadcom (AVGO) and Tesla (TSLA) were each up less than 1%.
Bitcoin was at $119,300 recently, after hitting an overnight high of just under $121,000 following Congressional approval late Thursday of legislation that aims to bring cryptocurrencies more into the financial mainstream. Bitcoin isn’t far from the record high of $123,000 set early Monday.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects borrowing costs on all sorts of loans, was at 4.43% this morning, down from 4.46% at yesterday’s close. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the performance of the dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, is down 0.5% to 98.28, after hitting its highest level in a month on Thursday.
Gold futures were up 0.5% at $3,365 an ounce, while West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, rose 2% to $68.90 per barrel, near their highest level in a month.