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U.S. stock-index futures were gaining modestly on Friday, with equity benchmarks set to end the week mostly higher, despite anxieties around a fast-moving Asia flu outbreak that has seen death tolls rise in China.
The Dow industrials was poised to open Friday trade with positive gains on the back of a surge in shares of Intel Corp., following quarterly results from the blue-chip technology giant late Thursday.
How are benchmarks performing?
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average YMH20, +0.25% were last up 69 points, or 0.2%, at 29,196, while S&P 500 futures ESH20, +0.20% climbed 7.25 points, or 0.2%, at 3,333.50, while Nasdaq-100 futures NQH20, +0.27% picked up 31,50 points to reach 9,279,75, a gain of 0.3%.
On Thursday, the Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.20% ended the day at a record, with a gain of 18.71 points, or 0.2%, at 9,402.48 for a record close. The S&P 500 SPX, +0.11% rose 3.79 points, or 0.1%, to end at 3,325.54, while the Dow DJIA, -0.09% lagged behind, ending 26.18 points lower at 29,160.09, off 0.1%.
For the week, the Dow was set to post a weekly decline of 0.6%, the S&P 500 was on pace to register a slight drop of 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was on track to end the holiday-shortened week up 0.1%, as of Thursday’s close, according to FactSet data.
What’s driving the market?
Wall Street has fed off earnings reports with the likes of Intel and American Express helping investors momentarily shake of concerns about the spread of coronavirus in China. Quarterly results had been expected to be a catalyst for investors worried that U.S. equity markets had grown too richly priced.
So far the news has been good from American corporations.
Of the 74 of the companies that have reported in the S&P 500 index thus far, 67.6% have reported above analysts’ consensus expectations, while 23% have reported below, compared with an average of 65% of companies outperforming and 20% missing since 1994, according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv.
Stocks largely reversed early losses Thursday after the World Health Organization said it was too early to declare the coronavirus outbreak that originated in China an international emergency.
However, the death toll has increased in China. China confirmed 830 cases of infection on Friday morning, with the official death count at 26, according to Chinese commission and state media.
“State media has the death toll at 26 and concerns are growing that the travel bans in place will start to have a major impact on the economy with some calling for a 1 percentage point hit or greater with Chinese GDP,” wrote Edward Moya, senior market analyst at brokerage Oanda, in a daily research note.
U.S. investors have been mindful of the coronavirus because such influenza’s can hurt economies if the spread isn’t contained. Wall Street also has said that equity indexes may be sensitive to bad news like viral illness because stocks are teetering at or near records.
“When investors are basically as bullish as they ever get it tends to not take much for them to at least temporarily tap the breaks. The initial uncertainty driven by headlines in the media,” Jeff deGraaf, chairman of Renaissance Macro Research, in a recent report.
Later in the day, IHS Markit is scheduled to publish the latest purchasing managers index (PMI) data for the U.S. for January at 9:45 a.m. Eastern Time, which may a modest slowdown in the manufacturing and services
Which stocks are in focus?
Shares of Dow components Intel Corp. INTC, +0.94% were up more than 6% after the chip maker reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat expectations following an upswing in personal-computer shipments and robust demand for chips to power data centers.
American Express Co. AXP, -0.09% shares rose 1.8% before the opening bell, toward a record, in premarket trading Friday, after the credit-card and travel-services company reported a fourth-quarter profit that beat expectations, while revenue was in line.
Check out MarketWatch’s column Need to Know: Apple shares are bound for $400, says analyst who helped spark Tesla rally this week
