Investing.com — U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Thursday after another bear market on Wall Street ahead of streaming giant Netflix's earnings.
As of 6:45 ET (10:45 GMT), it was up 95 points (0.3%), up 14 points (0.3%) and up 70 points (0.4%).
Wall Street indexes fell for the fourth consecutive session on Wednesday, as semiconductor manufacturing stocks suffered sharp declines after Dutch semiconductor technology giant ASML (AS:) reported weaker-than-expected profits.
Market leader NVIDIA (NASDAQ:) fell nearly 4% during the session, while its smaller peer Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:) fell 5.8%.
Broad markets were weighed down by a sharp rise in U.S. Treasury yields on signs of slowing U.S. inflation and hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve.
Netflix earnings will be announced after the close of trading
More notable results on Thursday, with TSMC (NYSE:), the world's largest contract chipmaker, reporting a big jump in first-quarter profits early Thursday, benefiting from unabated demand for AI in general. I was impressed by what I did.
Video streaming giant Netflix (NASDAQ:) is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings after the close of trading on Thursday, while numbers from asset manager Blackstone (NYSE:) and others are also being released. alaska airlines (NYSE:) and financier KeyCorp (NYSE:) will also be due.
Some of the major pre-market movers include aluminum manufacturers. alcohol (NYSE:) Shares rose nearly 3% as profits beat expectations and the company showed signs of stabilizing production in 2024.
Micron Technology (NASDAQ:) rose about 2% on a report that the memory chip maker is set to receive more than $6 billion in government subsidies, while credit reporting company Equifax (NYSE:) rose less than expected. The stock plunged nearly 10% after the company announced weak guidance.
casino operator las vegas sands (NYSE:) fell 3% as weak performance from its Macau business remained a concern despite beating profit estimates.
Unemployment insurance application data attracting attention
The main economic indicators on this day will be weekly statistics, and the March report will also be released.
Investors will be looking for further clues about the strength of the U.S. economy amid growth concerns that the Federal Reserve will delay interest rate cuts until the second half of the year.
The Cleveland Fed president said Wednesday that he is “fairly confident” that inflation will move sustainably toward its 2% target this year as price pressures ease further and allow the Fed to reduce borrowing costs. He said that it is limited to certain cases.
Her colleague, the president of the San Francisco Fed, said earlier in the week that there was “no urgency” to cut U.S. interest rates because the economy and labor market were strong and inflation remained above the Fed's target. 2%.
Crude oil weakens again
Oil prices fell sharply in pre-trade on Thursday, even as the Biden administration reimposed sanctions on Venezuelan crude exports after President Nicolas Maduro failed to fulfill his initial promise to hold national elections. In addition, it fell.
By 6:45 a.m. ET, U.S. crude oil futures were trading 1.1% lower at $81.78 per barrel and Brent crude oil futures were down 1.1% at $86.33 per barrel.
Support came from news that the US government had decided to reimpose oil sanctions on Venezuela, along with rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
But bets on a tight market were offset by data showing record U.S. production and big inventory increases.
(Amber Warrick contributed to this article.)
