U.S. stock futures pointed to a stronger start on Thursday, boosted by results from Facebook parent Meta Platforms that weren’t as bad as anticipated.
What’s happening
- Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average YM00, +1.05% rose 341 points, or 1% to 33567.
- Futures on the S&P 500 ES00, +1.66% gained 69.25 points, or 1.7%, to 4250.
- Futures on the Nasdaq 100 NQ00, +2.23% increased 305.5 points, or 2.4% to 13315.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.19% rose 62 points, or 0.19%, to 33302, the S&P 500 SPX, +0.21% increased 9 points, or 0.21%, to 4184, and the Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.01% dropped 2 points, or 0.01%, to 12489.
What’s driving markets
The results from Meta Platforms FB, -3.32% weren’t well ahead of consensus, as revenue actually came in weaker than forecast, but expectations were low given the 48% decline this year in the stock.
In premarket trade, Meta shares stormed 17% higher.
Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said the Meta results weren’t great, but weren’t horrible either.
Meta’s better-than-forecast subscriber numbers sets the stage for two other megacap tech stock results after the close, Amazon.com AMZN, -0.88% and Apple AAPL, -0.15%. Though the stock-market decline for Amazon hasn’t been as severe as Meta’s, its stock is just 2% above its 52-week intraday low.
Besides the tech results, investors also will be looking at the first-quarter gross domestic product numbers.
“U.S. GDP data to show notable slowdown – and possible contraction – in first quarter as negative contributions from net trade and inventories offset steady private domestic demand,” said Chris Scicluna, head of economic research for Daiwa Capital Markets Europe.
The yen USDJPY, +1.68% meanwhile slumped to a fresh 20-decade low after the Bank of Japan didn’t alter its easy monetary policy stance.
This article was originally published by Marketwatch.com. Read the original article here.
