US stock index futures took a step back on Friday, after a strong rally sparked by results from chipmaker Nvidia, which sparked enthusiasm about a potential revolution in artificial intelligence.
What is happening
-
Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures YM00,
-0.03%
It fell 5 points, or 0%, to 39,118. -
S&P 500 futures ES00,
-0.06%
It fell 2 points or 0% to 5096. -
Nasdaq 100 Futures NQ00,
-0.20%
It fell 27 points, or 0.2%, to 18,021.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 457 points, or 1.18%, to 39,069, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 105 points, or 2.11%, to 5,087, and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 461 points, or 2.96%, to 16,042.
The S&P 500 hit its 12th record high of the year, with the Nasdaq Composite finishing just 0.1% away from the new record.
Even beleaguered small caps rose, with the Russell 2000 RUT up 1%.
What drives the markets?
nvidia out of stock,
It will remain in the spotlight on Friday after the company's stock price rose 16% on Thursday on the heels of its fourth-quarter revenue and first-quarter sales forecasts, easily beating analysts' expectations. Nvidia's rise has made it the third most valuable stock in the S&P 500, now ahead of both Alphabet GOOGL,
and Amazon.com AMZN,
Investors responded to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's announcement that AI has “reached a tipping point.”
“We believe generative AI will prove to be this decade's growth theme, and Nvidia's earnings report demonstrates the current strength of AI infrastructure spending,” said Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management.
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said in a speech after the stock market closed on Thursday that it will take time for artificial intelligence to impact productivity. “History shows that the journey from general-purpose technology invention to innovation to productivity can be long and uneven. Although adoption of generative AI is occurring at a rapid pace, taking full advantage of the technology requires complementary investments as well as changes in company structure, management practices And training workers.
Cook said current monetary policy was restrictive but said she wanted more confidence that inflation was close to 2% before cutting interest rates.
Fed Governor Christopher Waller made a similar point, in a speech on Thursday that was also delivered after the stock market closed. “I still expect that it will be appropriate at some point this year to start easing monetary policy, but the onset of policy easing and the number of interest rate cuts will depend on the incoming data,” Waller said.
There are more earnings reports on the list, including earnings reports from Warner Bros. Discovery WBD,
And Icahn IB,
LUNR Intuitive Machines Stock,
Odysseus stock prices rose in pre-market trade after the company's Odysseus spacecraft reached the moon and began sending signals to Earth.
