
U.S. stock futures inched up modestly on Friday, as investors awaited a highly anticipated reading of gross domestic product, and juggled another batch of corporate results.
More earnings updates from tech companies were due, with Twitter, Inc. expected to report ahead of the open, on the heels of Amazon.com Inc., whose record profit reported late Thursday helped soothe an otherwise tough week for tech-sector earnings.
What are the main benchmarks doing?
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YMU8, +0.07%[1] rose 30 points to 25,554, while S&P 500 futures ESU8, +0.10%[2] inched up 3 points to 2,846.25. Nasdaq-100 futures NQU8, +0.38%[3] rose 32 points to 7,463.25.
The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -1.01%[4] sank 80.05 points to 7,852.18 Thursday, a decline of 1% from a record close on Wednesday, after Facebook Inc. FB, -18.96%[5] posted its biggest one-day drop ever. The benchmark S&P 500 SPX, -0.30%[6] fell 0.3%, to 2,837.44, while the Dow DJIA, +0.44%[7] bucked the trend, rising 112.97 points, or 0.4%, to 25,527.07.
For the week as a whole, Dow was looking at a gain of 1.9%, the S&P 500 a gain of 1.3%, with the Nasdaq Composite trailing with a 0.4% rise, all as of Thursday’s close.
What’s driving markets?
Stock and bond markets were braced for second-quarter gross domestic product data. Economists polled by MarketWatch expect annual growth of 4.2%, which could be one of the fastest rates of economic expansion since a 5.2% print in 2014.[8] The data will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time, followed by July consumer sentiment at 10 a.m. Eastern.
Read: Wall Street investors can’t remember the last time a GDP report was so crucial [9]
Technology stocks will stay in the spotlight, with Amazon.com ...