(Reuters) – Wall Street’s main stock indexes were set to open higher on Friday as Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose and shares of regional banks held steady after a selloff, while data-driven hopes of a pause in interest-rate hikes bolstered investor sentiment.
Both consumer and producer prices cooled a bit, while weekly jobless claims posted their sharpest rise in 1-1/2-years.
The University of Michigan’s preliminary reading on the overall index of consumer sentiment is expected to come in at 63.0 this month, down from 63.5 in April.
“It (markets) is bullish on the fact that we are not going to have a hard landing, and we are not going to have a big recession,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments.
“The Fed can pause because inflation is coming down. Even the banking failures that happened, the financial system was dented, but it didn’t break.”
Tesla Inc rose 2.1% in premarket trade and was the top gainer among its growth peers after top boss Elon Musk said he found a new chief executive for Twitter. The EV maker also raised the U.S. prices of its Model S, X, and Y vehicles.
Regional bank stocks steadied after the KBW Regional Banking index ended four straight sessions lower on concerns over the sector’s health following the collapse of three regional lenders.
PacWest Bancorp, Zions Bancorp, KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) and Western Alliance (NYSE:WAL) Bancorp all rose between 1.4% and 1.8%.
Shares of Fox Corp fell 1.8% after Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) downgraded the media company to “equal-weight” from “overweight”.
At 8:40 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 116 points, or 0.35%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 13.25 points, or 0.32%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 23.5 points, or 0.17%.
Data showed U.S. import prices increased in April for the first time since late 2022 amid higher fuel costs, but imported inflation pressures remained subdued.
Markets will also be watching for signs of a breakthrough in raising the U.S. government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling to avoid a catastrophic default.
A meeting between President Joe Biden and top lawmakers that was scheduled for Friday has been postponed, and the leaders agreed to meet early next week.
Meanwhile, Fedwatchers will keep a close eye on comments from St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard and Fed Board Governor Philip Jefferson later in the day.
Source: Economy - investing.com
