Stock futures were mixed and little changed ahead of the opening bell Friday, a day after the S&P 500 closed at a record, while Treasury yields ticked lower as U.S. retail sales unexpectedly fell in July.
Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 futures ticked 0.3% and 0.1% higher, respectively, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were 0.1% lower.
Yesterday, the benchmark S&P 500 crossed the 7800 threshold for the first time and closed just below that level, as investor concerns about possible Federal Reserve rate hikes eased following a tame wholesale inflation report. The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite and blue-chip Dow also closed higher, with the Dow snapping a three-session losing streak.
Entering Friday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up a respective 0.5% and 0.4% for the week, on pace to extend their weekly winning streaks to three, while the Dow was down 0.4% after two weeks of gains.
The Census Bureau’s retail sales data declined 0.6% in July when a 0.1% rise was expected by economists, down from a 0.2% increase in June. The 10-year Treasury yield, which influences interest rates on a variety of consumer loans including mortgages, was at 4.64% in recent trading, down from 4.65% before the reading and little changed from Thursday’s close. At 10 a.m. ET, the University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey is due, and the public remains downbeat, with many concerned about the labor market.
Memory stocks Sandisk (SNDK), Western Digital (WDC), Micron Technology (MU), Seagate Technology (STX), and SK Hynix (SKHY) rose roughly 2% to 6.5% in premarket trading Friday after surging 4% to 14% Thursday. They are components of the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM), which pointed up 2.5% after advancing 4% yesterday.
The Magnificent Seven mega-cap tech firms were mixed before the bell after all but Amazon (AMZN) ended higher Thursday. Tesla (TSLA) was up less than 1% after pacing the group’s advances at almost 4% yesterday.
Elsewhere, Reddit (RDDT) shares soared 11% after S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the stock would join the S&P 500 ahead of the opening bell next Tuesday; Applied Materials (AMAT) sank 5.5% after its earnings report; and SpaceX (SPCX) stock pointed up 1.5% after declining more than 3% in the prior session.
Crude oil futures rose modestly Friday following two days of declines after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Newsmax that next week the U.S. was “going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of the economic isolation of a country,” referring to Iran. WTI futures, the U.S. benchmark, advanced 0.5% to $81.65 a barrel in recent trading, while Brent futures, the international benchmark, were up 0.3% to $87.30.
Gold futures ticked 0.5% higher to $4,440 an ounce. Bitcoin traded at around $62,800, down slightly over the past 24 hours. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, declined 0.5% to 99.51.