Stock futures turned mostly lower in early morning trading Friday as investors digested a slew of corporate earnings reports and as the market awaited an important snapshot of the jobs picture.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 141 points, or 0.4%. S&P 500 futures lost 0.1%, and Nasdaq 100 futures gained just 0.3% after being up much higher in the session.
Several technology stocks posted huge after-hours gains following strong quarterly results. Amazon jumped 12.4%, Pinterest surged more than 14% and Snap rocketed up around 50% the day after reporting earnings.
Investors were awaiting the January nonfarm payrolls report, which is expected to show a gain of 150,000, according to a Dow Jones estimate. However, some on Wall Street are bracing for a disappointing report, with one forecast calling for a loss of 400,000.
In earnings news, Ford Motor missed estimates by a wide margin, with profit reported Thursday of 26 cents a share well below the consensus of 45 cents. Shares tumbled 6% in premarket trading.
Friday’s moves come the day after a tech rout spurred by a disappointing earnings report from Facebook parent Meta. The company’s weak results sent the mega-cap tech stock lower Thursday and weighed on equity markets.
After Facebook’s quarterly results, “everyone just gave up and sold the whole sector. That was clearly the wrong read,” Rich Greenfield of Lightshed Partners told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Thursday. “What’s going to be really interesting is how investors start to look at these companies more individually versus … this whole sector.”
On Thursday, the Nasdaq Composite, which is tilted towards tech shares, fell 3.7% for its worst daily performance since September 2020. The S&P 500 had its worst day in nearly a year, sliding 2.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 518.17 points.
“The sharp drop in FB market cap today and the accompanying drag on the S&P500 index is … a stark reminder of the high concentration of mega-cap Tech stocks in the S&P 500 — and the vulnerabilities that such concentration brings,” Goldman Sachs’ Chris Hussey said in a note Thursday.
Meanwhile, U.S. oil prices topped $90 per barrel for the first time since 2014, heightening inflation concerns.
