Nasdaq leads futures higher
U.S. equity futures traded mostly higher Thursday morning following a better-than-expected earnings report from Meta, the parent of Facebook.
The major futures indexes suggest a gain of 0.5% on the S&P 500 and a rise of 1.4% on the Nasdaq.
Oil prices rebounded on Thursday after tumbling in the previous session.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) U.S. crude futures traded around $76.00 a barrel.
Brent crude futures traded around $82.00 a barrel.
Meta Platforms shares are soaring nearly 20% in premarket trading after forecasting first-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates, signaling a rebound in demand for digital ads after months of weak sales.
The Federal Reserve said the U.S. economy is moving toward lower inflation but more interest rate hikes are planned.
Thursday’s economic reports will be jobless claims, productivity and factory orders.
In Asia, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo added 0.2%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 0.5% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index was little changed.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index closed 1% higher after the Fed raised its key lending rate by 0.25 percentage points, smaller than previous hikes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained less than 0.1% to 34,092.96. The Nasdaq composite jumped 2% to 11,816.32.
Meta shares jump on revenue beat
Meta Platforms shares soaring 20% in premarket trading after forecasting first-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates, signaling a rebound in demand for digital ads after months of weak sales.
The parent of Instagram and Facebook forecast revenue between $26 billion and $28.5 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimates of $27.14 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
The digital ad giant faced a brutal 2022 as companies cut back on marketing spend due to economic worries, while rivals like TikTok captured younger users and Apple’s privacy updates continued to challenge the business of placing targeted ads.
Meta’s forecast is an indication
that the ad market may be recovering as companies increase their marketing budgets, after a long pause due to macroeconomic uncertainties.
Net income for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, however, fell to $4.65 billion, or $1.76 per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with $10.29 billion, or $3.67 per share, a year earlier, largely due to a $4.2 billion charge related to cost-cutting moves such as layoffs.
Posted by Reuters
Health care and technology headline Thursday’s earnings
Before the bell earnings are due from health care companies including Cardinal Health, Merck, Bristol-Myers, Eli Lilly, Becton Dickinson, and Quest Diagnostics.
Also watch for numbers from oil and gas giant ConocoPhillips,
industrial conglomerate Honeywell International, cosmetics giant Estee Lauder, chocolate manufacturer Hershey, and satellite radio company Sirius XM.
In the afternoon all eyes will be on Dow member Apple, online retailing giant Amazon, and Google parent Alphabet when …….
