Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on February 1, 2024.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
S&P 500 futures rose on Friday morning as three big tech giants reported earnings and investors focused on January’s jobs report.
Futures tracking broader market indexes rose about 0.5%, while Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1%. Meanwhile, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell slightly.
Meta shares soared 15% in after-hours trading after the social media giant missed analyst expectations. Facebook’s parent company also announced it would pay a quarterly dividend for the first time and authorized a $50 billion share buyback program. Amazon stock rose 7% in the fourth quarter. However, Apple’s stock fell 3% in its fiscal first quarter as sales in China fell.
The move follows a day of rebounding during Thursday’s trading hours. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.97%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose 1.25% and 1.3%, respectively. The move follows Wednesday’s selloff that began after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicated that a rate cut at the March meeting was unlikely.
Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management, said Thursday’s rally not only shows investors correcting Wednesday’s overreactions but is also optimistic about the prospect of an eventual rate cut. He said that it shows that.
“This is my first time [the FOMC] “It’s incredibly possible that with seven more weeks of data, policy rates may gain enough confidence to make their first rate cut by the time the March meeting begins,” he told CNBC. There’s still sexuality,” he said. It’s not our base case, but it’s certainly in the cards and there’s a 60% chance of it happening in May. ”
Meanwhile, overall profits exceeded expectations, further confirming the positive market reaction. Ultimately, Hogan believes this year’s market rally is likely to continue, although Wednesday’s pullback remains a blip on the radar.
“The economy is resilient, consumers are confident, economic indicators are better than expected, and there is potential for earnings and sales growth in 2024, which could lift the market slightly,” he said. “It’s very sexual,” he said.
Investors and the Fed will have another data point to ponder as the January jobs report is released on Friday. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect payrolls to rise by 185,000 and the unemployment rate to edge up to 3.8%. By comparison, December saw a jump of 216,000 job openings and an unemployment rate of 3.7%.
Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cigna and AbbVie are all scheduled to report earnings before the bell on Friday.
