BY MEDHA SINGH AND DEVIK JAIN
Wall Street was set to open higher on Friday after tech titans Apple, Amazon.com and Facebook posted blowout quarterly earnings, helping keep nagging pandemic nerves at bay.
Apple Inc
Amazon.com Inc
Trading in Alphabet Inc
A surge in the stock price of the four companies, which make up nearly a fifth of the S&P 500’s value, as well as aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus have sent the tech-heavy Nasdaq to record highs and set the S&P 500 on course for its fourth straight monthly gain.
The benchmark index is now about 4% shy of its February all-time high, but faltering macroeconomic data and rising COVID-19 cases are making investors cautious again.
Figures on Thursday confirmed the sharpest contraction in U.S. GDP since the Great Depression, while rising jobless weekly claims suggested a nascent recovery in the labor market was stalling.
“There is a little bit of a balancing act between the positives and negatives – a deluge of pretty strong tech earnings that we got last night and then the struggle in Congress to try to get the COVID stimulus package passed,” said Dan Eye, head of asset allocation and equity research at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Investors betting on more U.S. government stimulus, before an extra $600-per-week federal jobless benefit expires on Friday, have also been disappointed as the Senate adjourned for the weekend and will return on Monday.
“We’ve already seen a lot of positives play out and that’s reflected in pricing. We don’t think that the market has priced in a cushion for unexpected events on the downside,” Eye said.
At 8:08 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were up 42 points, or 0.16%. S&P 500 e-minis
The second quarter earning season is past the halfway mark with about 82.4% of companies beating significantly lowered estimates, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Among blue-chip Dow constituents, Caterpillar Inc
Ford Motor Co
Drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc
Oil majors Chevron Corp
========
Web Source