U.S. stocks braced for a milestone new bid on Friday as investors spooked over potential interest rate cuts.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) held firm after reaching the critical $40,000 level for the first time in Thursday trading. Futures for the S&P 500 (ES=F) and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) are also little changed, with all indicators on track for weekly wins.
Stocks rose sharply following comments from Federal Reserve officials warning that interest rates are likely to remain at historic highs for some time. That dampened enthusiasm for a potential rate cut in September, which had been heightened by strong inflation data.
read more: How does the labor market affect inflation?
Economic and corporate events were light on Friday, providing little incentive for the Dow Jones Industrial Average to break above a key milestone again. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are each on the verge of setting new records.
For this reason, attention will be focused on the attendance of Federal Reserve Chairs Mary Daly and Christopher Waller on Friday. Markets will likely heed any departure from the message from colleagues that the Fed will track data and wait for clear signs of inflation cooling before taking action.
Among individual stocks, Reddit (RDDT) stock rose as much as 14% in pre-market trading, not far from its March all-time closing price of $65.11. The social media platform has a partnership with OpenAI that will see ChatGPT integrate the forum’s content.
Meanwhile, GameStop (GME) stock fell after the gaming retailer said it expects first-quarter sales to decline as shoppers shift to online retailers. Meme stocks soared earlier in the week in the aftermath of the 2021 frenzy, but the rally has turned lower in recent days.
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Reddit begins pre-market with OpenAI deal
Reddit (RDDT) is up 14% pre-market on a new deal with OpenAI. This will allow OpenAI to access Reddit’s data to help build models.
The deal comes as no surprise to Reddit investors. The company recently signed a similar deal with Alphabet (GOOGL). Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman told me last week that there could be more deals like this as part of reinventing the platform.
A new user interface is expected to arrive later this year.
Read the full story below.
