Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
NYSE
Stock futures were little changed on Thursday night after a record-setting session, with two of the three major benchmarks on pace for their third consecutive weekly advance.
S&P 500 futures traded just above the flatline along with Nasdaq-100 futures. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose just 4 points.
The S&P 500 on Thursday hit an intraday all-time high of 7,816.70. The benchmark also closed at a record.
The tech and communication services sectors were among the big winners in the index, rising roughly 1% each.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 added over 0.75% while the Topix rose 0.23%. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 2.54% at open, while the small-cap Kosdaq gained 1.10%. Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was 0.63% lower.
“The market is appropriately bullish right now,” Anastasia Amoroso, chief investment strategist at Partners Group, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” in an interview, noting the strength in corporate earnings.
With more than 90% of S&P 500 companies having posted second-quarter results, earnings growth from the year-earlier period is tracking around 50%, according to FactSet.
Amoroso also noted that software has “rallied and rebounded … I think the market came to the realization that maybe we did not appropriately price in those risks.” Indeed, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) is up around 28% over the past six months after tumbling more than 24% in the first quarter. IGV climbed more than 3% on Thursday.
Thursday’s gain put the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite on pace for their third straight weekly advances. Heading into Friday’s session, the former is up 0.5%, while the latter has advanced 0.4%. The Dow, meanwhile, is down 0.4% week to date.
There are no major earnings due Friday, but investors will have a look at July retail sales figures at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists on average expect sales grew by 0.1% month over month, according to Dow Jones.
South Korea’s Kospi rises 2.5% at open, Japan’s Nikkei also gains
Asia-Pacific markets opened broadly higher early Friday, tracking Wall Street gains overnight.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 added over 0.75% while the Topix rose 0.23%.
South Korea’s Kospi advanced 2.54% at open, while the small-cap Kosdaq gained 1.10%.
Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was 0.63% lower.
—Justina Lee
Japan’s Nikkei 225 set to open higher, tracking Wall Street peers
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was poised to rise at open, with the Chicago futures contract at 69,350 and its Osaka counterpart last trading at 69,140, compared with the index’s previous close of 68,308.59.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures were at 25,214, lower than the index’s last close of 25,396.51.
Futures for Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 last traded at 9,091, while the index closed at 9,188.50.
The S&P 500 hit a new all-time intraday high Thursday as oil prices fell and investors assessed inflation data.
Meanwhile, tensions between the U.S. and Iran continue to simmer. The U.S. Central Command said in a post on X that it has launched “the first-ever multi-domain, multinational attack drone task force,” nine months after its first dedicated one-way attack drone squadron in the Middle East.
—Justina Lee
Reddit to join the S&P 500, shares rise
Social media forum Reddit will join the S&P 500 starting on Aug. 18.
Shares surged 10% in after-hours trading.
Reddit in the past day
Reddit has been having a rocky year, off 31% year to date.
The company will replace AvalonBay Communities, a real estate investment trust with a portfolio of apartments.
Equity Residential is set to acquire AvalonBay, and the combined company will continue to trade on the S&P 500, though under its new name Vivmark Residential.
—Darla Mercado
Number of bullish individual investors decline in latest AAII weekly survey
The percentage of mom-and-pop investors who are bullish about the outlook for stocks over the next six months narrowed to 34.7% from 37.0% in the latest weekly survey by the American Association of Individual Investors, below the historical average of 37.5%.
Bearish investors were little changed at 37.9% this week vs. 38.0% last week, still far above the long-term historical average of 31.5%.
Those investors who count themselves as neutral about the outlook for stocks widened to 27.4% from 25.0% last week, below the historic average of 31.0%.
The survey is regarded as a contrarian indicator, with extreme bullish readings signaling that investors may have mostly finished buying and have little cash left in reserve, and extreme bearish readings interpreted as meaning most selling is done and there’s plenty of cash available to put to work in stocks.
— Scott Schnipper
Market factoids heading into Friday’s session
The Dow had its first positive day in four on Thursday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted back-to-back daily gains for the first time since Aug. 4. The S&P 500 also had its best day since Aug. 4.
Seven of the 11 S&P sectors gained during the day, with communication services leading, up 1.6%. Materials lagged, losing 0.7%.
Week to date, the Dow is lower, on track for its first negative week in three. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are higher, on track for their third straight positive week. This would be the first three-week win streak for the S&P 500 since May 29 and for the Nasdaq since May 8.
So far this week, eight of the 11 S&P sectors are higher, with energy outperforming, up 5.9%. Consumer discretionary is lagging week to date, down 1.6%.
— Brianna Bernath
