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Wall Street indexes were back in sight of record highs following
a selloff last month, as a slew of economic data pointed to
cooling labor market momentum, raising expectations that the Fed
will cut borrowing costs more than once this year.
Traders are currently pricing in 46 basis points of rate cuts by
the end of 2024, according to LSEG's rate probabilities tool,
with the first cut of 25 bps seen in September.
Expectations of U.S. monetary policy easing, along with a much
better-than-expected earnings season put the benchmark S&P 500
and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite on track for their third
consecutive week of gains.
The blue-chip Dow, currently on its longest daily winning run
since December, was set for a fourth week of gains.
The University of Michigan's preliminary survey of consumer
sentiment for May is due at 10 a.m. ET.
Investors will also focus on speeches from a host of Fed
policymakers — Governor Michelle Bowman, Minneapolis President
Neel Kashkari, Dallas President Lorie Logan and Vice Chair for
Supervision Michael Barr — during the day.
While most Fed policymakers have reiterated that the next policy
move will be a rate cut, doubt still remains about when the
easing will begin.
There is "considerable" uncertainty about where U.S. inflation
will head in coming months, San Francisco Fed President Mary
Daly said on Thursday.
By 5:57 a.m. ET, S&P 500 e-minis were up 20.25 points, or 0.39%.
Nasdaq 100 e-minis climbed 86.25 points, or 0.47%, and Dow
e-minis added 116 points, or 0.29%.
Nvidia gained 1.4% in premarket trading after Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world's largest chipmaker
and a major supplier to Nvidia, reported a near 60% jump in
April sales.
Akamai Technologies fell 10.6% after it forecast second-quarter
revenue and profit below Wall Street estimates, anticipating
weak demand for its content delivery services.
SoundHound AI, whose technology allows humans to interact
conversationally with products such as phones and cars, jumped
16.4% after its first-quarter revenue beat market estimates.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak
Dasgupta)
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