Nasdaq futures rise after Meta results, Fed optimism

[July 27, 2023]  (Reuters) - Nasdaq futures rose on Thursday, supported by a surge in Meta Platforms after its strong third-quarter revenue forecast lifted megacap growth and technology stocks, and hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve's July rate hike was the last this year.

Meta Platforms gained 7.6% in premarket trading after it also reported a jump in advertising revenue, topping Wall Street financial targets for the second quarter. The stock is set to add about $60 billion to its market value.

The Facebook parent's results followed a strong performance by Alphabet earlier this week, which show that consumers, and advertisers eager to reach them, are spending despite broad economic concerns.

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised interest rates by 25 basis points as expected.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the economy still needed to slow and the labor market to weaken for inflation to "credibly" return to the U.S. central bank's 2% target.

"We continue to expect that today's hike will be the last of the cycle. Powell said that the FOMC will be particularly focused on the inflation data, and we expect the next few CPI reports to be soft," said David Mericle, chief U.S. economist at Goldman Sachs, in a note.

"As a result, we expect that the FOMC will skip September in order to slow the pace and will then conclude in November that inflation has slowed enough to make a final hike unnecessary."

Traders expect only a slim 20% chance that the U.S. central bank could surprise with a quarter-point increase in September.

On tap on the economic front, the Commerce Department is set to report that the U.S. gross domestic product increased at a 1.8% annualized rate last quarter, in its advance estimate of second-quarter GDP growth.

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 26, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

At 04:42 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 45 points, or 0.13%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 23.75 points, or 0.52%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 172.5 points, or 1.11%.

While Nasdaq has led the charge on Wall Street so far this year supported by outsized gains in megacap growth stocks, Dow is catching up as investors bet on sectors beyond technology.

The blue-chips Dow is on track for its 14th straight day of gains after a scorching rally that saw it log its longest winning streak since 1987 in the previous session.

Netflix climbed 1.0% after report that it was restructuring its advertising partnership with Microsoft for its lower-priced ad-supported subscription plan and also cutting ad prices.

EBay forecast third-quarter profit below market expectations as the e-commerce platform spent more to bolster categories such as auto parts, refurbished goods and collectibles, sending its shares down 5.3%.

Intel, McDonald's Corp, Mastercard, Ford Motor and T-Mobile US are among some of the companies expected to report their quarterly results during the day.

(Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

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