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Stock-index futures were up slightly Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 index on track for weekly gains as the first week of the corporate earnings reporting season draws to a close.
What are major indexes doing?
Dow futures YM00, +0.31% were up 80 points, or 0.3%, to 26,633, while S&P 500 futures ES00, +0.38% gained 13.75 points, or 0.4%, to 3,208.25. Nasdaq-100 futures NQ00, +0.87% gained 101.25 points, or 1%, to trade at 10,613.
The Dow DJIA, -0.50% on Thursday fell 135.39 points, or 0.5%, to close at 26,734.71, while the S&P 500 SPX, -0.34% shed 10.99 points, or 0.3%, to close at 3,215.57. The Nasdaq COMP, -0.72% finished at 10,473.83, down 76.66 points, or 0.7%.
Through Thursday, the Dow was on track for a 2.5% weekly rise, while the S&P 500 was up 1%. The Nasdaq, which has outpaced the other benchmarks in 2020 thanks to highflying tech stocks, is running behind, down 1.4% over the past four days.
What’s driving the market?
The continued rise in COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has been partly offset by optimism over scope for additional fiscal stimulus from Congress which is expected to begin work on a new package next week and may renew expanded unemployment benefits due to expire at the end of July, analysts said.
“Further fiscal stimulus could give the bull market fresh legs, with equities having already priced in the current unprecedented monetary policy support,” said Han Tan, market analyst at FXTM, in a note.
Meanwhile, European Union leaders on Friday were kicking off a two-day summit aimed at reaching an agreement on a €750 billion recovery fund.
Read:European Union leaders say they are far apart on COVID-19 bailout deal
“Should fiscal policymakers disappoint and deny stock bulls the fuel they desire, we could see the rapid erosion of gains from recent months,” Tan said.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 world-wide rose to 13.6 million on Thursday, after a record of about 230,400 new infections were counted on Wednesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. saw 66,300 new cases on Wednesday, just below the record of more than 67,000 cases reported on Tuesday.
June data on U.S. housing starts and building permits is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Starts are forecast to a 1.2 million seasonally adjusted annual rate versus a 974,000 pace in May. Permits are expected to come in at an annualized pace of 1.3 million versus 1.22 million in May.
A July consumer sentiment index reading is due at 10 a.m. Eastern.
Which companies are in focus?
- Shares of Netflix Inc. NFLX, +0.78% were down more than 7% in premarket trade, with concerns over the second-half outlook overshadowing a jump in revenue and the addition of more than 10 million new subscribers to the video streaming service. Netflix shares have rallied 63% in the year to date. Read:Netflix promotes its Mr. Hollywood to co-CEO, showing importance of original content
- BlackRock Inc. BLK, -0.28% shares were up 1.9% ahead of the opening bell after reporting earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street expectations.
What are other markets doing?
The Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, +0.12% rose 0.1%, while the CSI 300 Index 000300, +0.63% gained 0.6%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index NIK, -0.32% rose 0.3%, while the Hang Seng Index HSI, +0.47% in Hong Kong gained 0.5%.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 Europe Index SXXP, +0.07% was up 0.1%, while London’s FTSE 100 Index UKX, +0.46% advanced 0.5%.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, 0.606% was down 0.8 basis point at 0.605% as investors pivoted away from riskier assets. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, -0.27%, a measure of the U.S. currency against a basket of six major rivals, fell 0.3%.
Oil futures CL.1, -0.78% were under pressure, falling 0.5%. Meanwhile, gold GC00, +0.38% edged higher.
