US stocks rose before the bell on Friday, poised for another comeback bid as investors waited for crucial inflation data that will test high expectations for interest-rate cuts.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) added 0.5%, or about 200 points, after the blue-chip index eked out a closing gain. S&P 500 futures (ES=F) rose about 0.7%, while Nasdaq 100 futures (NQ=F) climbed 1%, both coming off a failed attempt to rebound from this week’s tech-led sell-off.
Stocks are looking positive after a volatile series of sessions that have put the major gauges on track for hefty weekly losses. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) have taken a bruising as Big Tech earnings undermined confidence in the AI trade, spurring the ongoing exodus from megacaps into small cap stocks.
That pause in this year’s rally has Wall Street questioning whether the sell-off is a turning point to sustained lower prices or a typical bull-market pullback. In play are earnings-fueled concerns about softness in the US economy, though Thursday’s surprisingly hot GDP print eased those somewhat.
The spotlight is now on Friday’s release of the June update to the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation indicator. The data, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, will fuel expectations for timing and depth of rate cuts, and test Wall Street’s confidence in a September pivot.
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Investors are also getting set for quarterly earnings next week from four more “Magnificent Seven” techs — Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) and Meta (META) — that could end up reviving the tech sell-off. In the meantime, results from 3M (MMM) and Colgate-Palmolive (CL) are on Friday’s docket.
