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U.S. equity futures moved lower in early Friday trading as investors hit pause on a weeklong rally that has lifted stocks to a series of records despite hawkish rate messaging from the Federal Reserve.
Big tech gains, however, are once again driving the bulk of the market’s weekly gains, with Apple (AAPL) notching its best three-day run in four years. That move added around $320 billion to its market capitalization and put it back above Microsoft (MSFT) as the world’s valuable company.
The number of stocks trading at their 100-day moving averages, a key performance metric on Wall Street, fell to 45% last night, the lowest since mid-November.
That could be why markets are looking weaker heading into the start of Friday trading. And it comes despite another leg lower in Treasury bond yields, which followed yesterday’s solid auction of 30-year paper and a softer-than-expected reading for May producer-price inflation.
The biggest U.S. tech stocks continue to drive the lion’s share of performance on the S&P 500.
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Benchmark 10-year note yields were marked at 4.209% heading into the start of the New York trading session, with 2-year notes pegged at 4.679%.
The U.S. dollar index, meanwhile, was propped up by weakness in both the euro and the yen and was last marked 0.41% higher against its global currency peers at 105.619.
Wall Street may also be eyeing the selloff in Europe, where a surge in support for far-right candidates in last week’s parliamentary elections triggered a snap poll in France. President Emmanuel Macron now trails his longtime rival, the far-right veteran Marine Le Pen.
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Futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 suggest a 19-point pullback for the benchmark, which remains nearly 14% higher for the year, with a 255-point decline expected for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
The tech-focused Nasdaq, meanwhile, is called just 15 points lower, with support from early gains for Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) .
Tesla shares, in fact, are getting a boost from two key shareholder-vote wins for CEO Elon Musk, who received backing for his $55.8 billion pay deal from 2018 and his plans to move the carmaker’s incorporation to Texas from Delaware.
Adobe (ADBE) shares were also on the move, rising 14.6% after the group posted stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings and lifted its full-year revenue guidance on the back of surging demand for its AI-powered software.
RH (RH) shares, on the other hand, tumbled 11.2% after the former Restoration Hardware retail group provided a muted near-term sales outlook, adding that a “constantly changing outlook” would continue to weigh on the housing sector.
GameStop (GME) shares slipped 2.6% following reports that retail investor Keith Gill had sold most of this options contracts tied to the money-losing retailer, leaving him with a position of around 9 million shares.
In Europe, the fallout from last week’s elections continues to weigh on markets, with the regionwide Stoxx 600 falling 0.84% in Frankfurt and Britain’s FTSE 100 marked 0.47% lower in London.
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Overnight in Asia, the Bank of Japan made its first step towards trimming purchases in its massive bond portfolio, but stopped short of providing details on the timing, suggesting it’s likely to wait until well into the back half of the year.
The decision weakened the yen to 157.02 against the dollar and helped export stocks on the Nikkei 225, which ended the session 0.24% higher at 38,814.56 points.
The regional MSCI ex-Japan benchmark, meanwhile, slipped 0.19% into the close of trading.
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