Scott Kanowsky
5 min read
Investing.com – Futures linked to the major U.S. averages point higher, after equities on Wall Street advanced in the prior session, rebounding from an artificial intelligence-driven selloff earlier in the week. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh declines to provide specific interest-rate guidance ahead of the central bank’s October policy meeting, but says he has spoken with global central bankers about mounting inflationary pressures. Some investors reportedly temper their valuations for Claude-maker Anthropic’s potentially massive initial public offering, while Taiwan is said to be mulling over stricter export controls on AI chip sales to China. Elsewhere, Tesla’s latest sports car turns in the air.
1. Futures higher
U.S. stock futures hovered above the flatline on Friday. By 02:59 ET (06:59 GMT), the Dow futures contract had risen by 75 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 futures had ticked up by 7 points, or 0.1%, and Nasdaq 100 futures were broadly unchanged.
The main averages all finished higher on Thursday, bouncing back from a downturn fueled by jitters around a growing debt pile financing the AI boom and worries over elevated borrowing costs. In particular, shares of neocloud CoreWeave, whose precipitous slide on Wednesday helped spark the global rout in AI stocks, stabilized.
“Financial markets have calmed a little after CoreWeave stock bounced on Thursday. But the debate between intensifying price pressures needing tighter monetary policy and a tech correction requiring a softer policy outlook continues,” analysts at ING said in a note.
2. Fed’s Warsh avoids signaling October rate decision
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh offered an upbeat assessment of the U.S. economy, saying he was surprised how resilient it has proven to be in the face of tighter monetary policy.
But speaking at an event in Thailand, Warsh also said he had spoken with other central bankers about inflationary pressures. He added that it is “hard to be in a discussion” with these central bankers and “not compare notes and hear the same thing about the surge in prices.”
As he has largely done since taking over at the helm of the Fed earlier this year, Warsh did not reveal any specific insight into the central bank’s rate trajectory. Instead, he stressed that he doesn’t “believe in saying now what I might do at the meetings that we have in the balance of this year.”
