(Reuters) – U.S. stocks were set to open higher on Friday as signs of easing price pressures and slowing economic growth raised hopes the Federal Reserve could end its monetary tightening campaign soon.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rallied to fresh 14-month highs on Thursday as a slew of economic data pointed to cooling inflation, eclipsing concerns about further interest rate hikes that the Fed forecast on Wednesday.
The U.S. central bank signaled borrowing costs could rise by as much as half a percentage point by the end of this year but traders have priced in just one more 25-basis-point rate hike, expected in July, as per CMEGroup’s Fedwatch tool.
“The proverbial ‘thread the needle’ outcome engineered by the Fed’s efforts to tame inflation, at the same time not quelling economic growth is the narrative that has been embraced by investors,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott.
“The enthusiasm can be seen by way of the rally, that is fortunately beginning to broaden beyond just the narrow group of AI-related companies.”
The main U.S. indexes were on track for a strong weekly showing, with gains in megacap stocks including Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) setting up the tech-heavy Nasdaq for its eighth consecutive week of gains.
Microsoft edged 0.6% higher in premarket trading, a day after its shares closed at an all-time high and the software giant notched a record market value of $2.59 trillion.
Nvidia rose 1.5% after scaling new peaks on Thursday, as Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) hiked its price target to $500 and named the chipmaker as its top pick among U.S. semiconductor firms.
Trading, however, is expected to be volatile on Friday due to the simultaneous expiration of stock options, stock index futures and index options contracts, known as triple witching.
In economic data, the University of Michigan’s preliminary reading on consumer sentiment, due at 10:00 a.m. ET, is expected to show the index rose to 60 in June from 59.2 in May.
At 8:42 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 45 points, or 0.13%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 11 points, or 0.25%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 55 points, or 0.36%.
Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Inc rose 4.9% after the Photoshop maker’s earnings forecast surpassed analyst estimates as efforts to drive up demand with generative artificial intelligence (AI) integrations pay off.
Maker of Roomba vacuum cleaners iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) Corp jumped 20% after Britain’s competition regulator cleared Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s planned $1.7 billion acquisition of the company.
Carnival (NYSE:CCL) Corp gained 1.7% after Citigroup (NYSE:C) raised its price target on the cruise operator, citing higher confidence in the cruise sector.
Source: Economy - investing.com
