U.S. stock futures rose on Thursday ahead of the long weekend, with Good Friday falling on April 18 and Easter Sunday on April 20. Futures of major benchmark indices were higher in premarket.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell dismissed the possibility of a “Fed put” in the near term while speaking in Chicago on Wednesday.
“We may find ourselves in the challenging scenario in which our dual-mandate goals are in tension. If that were to occur, we would consider how far the economy is from each goal, and the potentially different time horizons over which those respective gaps would be anticipated to close,” said Powell.
U.S. export restrictions on Nvidia Corp.‘s (NASDAQ:NVDA) H20 GPUs pulled the stock market down on Wednesday.
The 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.32% and the two-year bond was at 3.82%. The CME Group’s FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing an 86.4% likelihood of the Federal Reserve keeping the current interest rates unchanged in its May meeting.
| Futures | Change (+/-) |
| Dow Jones | 0.75% |
| S&P 500 | 0.83% |
| Nasdaq 100 | 1.02% |
| Russell 2000 | 0.66% |
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, rose in premarket on Thursday. The SPY was up 1.03% to $531.05, while the QQQ advanced 1.04% to $448.78, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Cues From Last Session:
U.S. stocks closed sharply lower on Wednesday, driven by a significant sell-off in the semiconductor sector and broader tech weakness.
The iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) experienced a steep decline, with Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) both falling approximately 7% following new export restrictions on Nvidia chips to China.
This news heavily impacted the information technology sector, which, along with consumer discretionary and communication services, recorded the largest losses. In contrast, energy stocks defied the overall downward trend, closing higher.
Among individual companies, Travelers Companies Inc. (NYSE:TRV) reported better-than-expected first-quarter results, and Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) posted upbeat first-quarter adjusted EPS.
On the economic front, U.S. industrial production fell by 0.3% in March, slightly more than anticipated. However, U.S. retail sales surged 1.4% month-over-month in March, exceeding both the previous month’s gain and market expectations.
| Index | Performance (+/-) | Value |
| Nasdaq Composite | -3.07% | 16,307.16 |
| S&P 500 | -2.24% | 5,275.70 |
| Dow Jones | -1.73% | 39,669.39 |
| Russell 2000 | -1.03% | 1,863.48 |
Insights From Analysts:
According to Scott Wren, the senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo, “current equity …