By Sruthi Shankar and Shristi Achar A
(Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures rose on Friday, as investors eagerly awaited comments from Federal Reserve officials to get more clarity on rate cuts, after economic data this week supported bets of monetary policy easing.
Wall Street indexes were inching closer to record highs following a selloff last month, as a slew of economic data pointed to a cooling labor market, raising expectations that the Fed will cut borrowing costs more than once this year.
Traders are currently pricing in 45 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.
“Another round of incoming US employment data pointed to an ongoing softening in the labor market, fueling hopes that the Fed might cut interest rates sooner than anticipated,” Marios Hadjikyriacos, senior investment analyst at XM said in a note.
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.
Hadjikyriacos, however, added the consumer price index and the retail sales data for April, both scheduled for release on May 15, could set the markets up for heightened volatility.
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.
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, could offer more clues on the rate path.
Investors will also closely monitor the University of Michigan’s preliminary survey of consumer sentiment for May, which is due at 10 a.m. ET.
At 07:16 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 93 points, or 0.24%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 16 points, or 0.31% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 70.25 points, or 0.39%.
Nvidia gained 1.2% 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.
Novavax surged 123% after the vaccine maker removed doubts about its ability to remain in business and struck a licensing deal worth up to $1.2 billion with Sanofi for COVID-19 vaccines
Akamai Technologies fell 10.4% after it forecast second-quarter revenue and profit below Wall Street estimates, anticipating weak demand for its content delivery services.
SoundHound AI, which allows humans to interact conversationally with products such as phones and cars through its technology, jumped 14.1% after its first-quarter revenue beat market estimates.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Shristi Achar A in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Shinjini Ganguli)