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U.S. stock index futures were indicating a mostly flat start in a shortened session for Wall Street on Friday after Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day holiday. Attention is expected to focus on the start of the holiday shopping season and whether consumer spending is holding up.
How are stock-index futures trading?
-
S&P 500 futures
ES00,
+0.13%
rose 1.5 points to 4,034.50 -
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
YM00,
+0.22%
gained 19 points to 34,228 -
Nasdaq-100 futures
NQ00,
-0.21%
slipped 10 points to 11,853.
Markets were closed on Thursday in observance of the Thanksgiving Day holiday.
Equities finished higher for a second session on Wednesday, with the Dow industrials
DJIA,
rising 95.96 points, or 0.3%, to finish at 34,194.06. The S&P 500
SPX,
gained 23.68 points, or 0.6%, to 4,027.26, while the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
advanced 110.91 points, or 1%, to end at 11,285.32.
What’s driving markets?
Markets rose Wednesday after the minutes of the November Federal Reserve meeting showed most policy makers expect a slower pace of interest rate increases ahead. A batch of data also indicated economic growth is also slowing down.
Investors are clinging to hopes that the Fed will turn towards a less aggressive pace of rate hikes, amid concerns the economy is facing a tough 2023.
Read: Fed’s Bullard set to talk inflation, interest rates in MarketWatch Q&A Monday
There is no economic data planned for Friday, which will see a shortened session for Wall Street, with trading ending at 1 p.m. Eastern. But investors are facing a busy week ahead, with a large batch of data including revised third-quarter gross domestic product, the Fed’s favored inflation gauge, the PCE price index for October, home prices for September, and November employment data.
Elsewhere, China’s central bank said Friday that it will cut the amount of deposits banks have to set aside, releasing 500 billion yuan ($69.91 billion) of liquidity into an economy struggling with a Covid-19 outbreak.
“How effective that will prove to be when cities are seeing restrictions and effective lockdowns reimposed is hard to say. But combined with other measures to boost the property market and ease Covid curbs, the cut could be supportive over the medium term when growth remains highly uncertain,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA, in a note to clients.
Read: Panic-buying seen in Beijing as government orders construction of COVID-19 quarantine centers
The post-Thanksgiving trading day Friday also kicks off the start of annual holiday shopping, known as Black Friday, which could put shares of Amazon.com
AMZN,
Walmart
WMT,
and Target
TGT,
among others, in focus.
“Going into the holiday season, we’ll get an early idea of the state of play for household spending in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis,” added Erlam.
The bond market will also see a schedule similar to that of equities. U.S Treasury yields were little changed, with that of the two-year note
TMUBMUSD02Y,
down 1 basis point to 4.467% and the yield on the 10-year note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
steady at 3.691%.
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