US futures indicate a steady opening on Wall Street

US stock markets are heading to a near steady open on Friday. The leading S&P 500 futures traded as low as 0.1 percent in green at lunchtime, but the Nasdaq appears to be losing something at open.

Wall Street paused after the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Thursday, buoyed by a rebound in technology stocks. The biggest tech companies resumed their upward trend as the bond market calmed down, easing concerns about higher valuations of growth stocks.

Ed Keon, chief information officer at QMA, indicated that interest rates have been seeing some recent hikes. “The recent strong recovery in interest rates was part of the reason there has been a turnover in the market towards value stocks, especially financial and energy sector stocks,” Keon said. “With interest rates falling somewhat, we see these sectors underperforming as technology stocks have returned to the radar.”

The Federal Reserve bankers reiterated this week that they plan to maintain a loose monetary policy until the economy recovers further. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on Thursday expressed concern about lingering “labor market scars”.

On Friday, there are two releases on the US macroeconomic agenda. March producer prices will appear on the stock exchange, followed by wholesale stock prices in February later in the day.

The EUR / USD was trading at 1.1891. At the start of the European trading day, the currency pair was still at 1.1911 and when the US stock exchanges closed on Thursday, the boards stood at 1.19112.

Oil rose 0.1 percent on Friday.

Company news

Levi-Strauss shares rose 3.9 percent on Friday, after the jeans maker reported better-than-expected quarterly numbers late Thursday, despite ongoing store closings due to the Corona crisis.

McDonald’s rose 0.2 percent ahead of the market, after the burger chain said it was closing hundreds of its restaurants at Walmart locations. Once there were 1,000, and after the new closing round there were nearly 150.

Netflix has signed a multi-year agreement with Sony Pictures Entertainment over the rights to stream movies in the studio. The agreement will go into effect next year. Netflix’s share was 0.4 percent lower before the market.

Nike and MSCHF Product Studio have settled on Satan sneakers for rapper Lil Nas. MSCHF Product Studio should repurchase already sold Nike Air Max sneakers. Nike shares rose 0.5 percent ahead of the market.

Lock positions

The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index closed up 0.4 percent at 4,097.17 points on Thursday. The Dow Jones index closed 0.2 percent higher at 33,503.57 points, and the Nasdaq Technology Exchange rose 1.0 percent to 13,829.31 points.