U.S. stock futures turned higher on Friday, with Wall Street trying to recover from its biggest drop in more than a year with the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Futures tracking the S&P 500 Index (^GSPC) rose about 0.3%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC) rose about the same amount. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) added about 0.2%.
Fresh concerns about interest rates fueled a selloff on Thursday, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 600 points. Stocks had slumped after better-than-expected U.S. corporate data prompted the Federal Reserve to reassess its interest rate policy, but then turned dark.
Traders are roughly evenly split on whether the Fed will cut interest rates at its September meeting, according to the CME FedWatch tool, a stark change from a few days ago, when only about a third expected the Fed to keep rates steady at its first meeting of the fall.
Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury yields are rising again, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield (^TNX) hovering around 4.5%.
But Wall Street may be heading into the holiday weekend in a good mood. Nvidia (NVDA), whose shares surged early Thursday on its latest strong quarterly results, was up another 1% early Friday to hover around $1,050 a share. An upcoming stock split could further spur retail investor interest in the company’s shares.
On the macroeconomic front, the University of Michigan will release its revised consumer confidence index for May on Friday. Previous releases showed the index fell sharply this month as worries about inflation and interest rates weighed on Americans’ views of the economy.
