United States stock futures traded in a tight range on Thursday evening (Friday AEST) as traders turned focus toward corporate earnings, ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s upcoming speech at Jackson Hole.
By 9:15 am AEST (11:15 pm GMT), Dow futures, S&P 500 futures, and Nasdaq 100 futures were each trading 0.1% higher.
In extended trading, Zoom Communications rallied 5.2% after posting stronger-than-expected second-quarter results, reporting adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.53 on US$1.22 billion in revenue. Markets were expecting $1.38 per share on $1.20 billion in revenue.
By contrast, Intuit slipped 5.8% despite beating expectations, as investors looked past better-than-expected fourth-quarter EPS of $2.75 on $3.83 billion in revenue, as outlook concerns weighed on the stock.
Workday also fell nearly 4.3% despite beating earnings and revenue estimates.
Major benchmarks ended lower earlier in the day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.3%, the S&P 500 recording a fifth straight loss, down 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite shedding 0.3%.
Attention now turns to Powell’s speech at the Fed’s annual symposium in Wyoming, where investors are hoping for clarity on the interest rate outlook.
Markets currently see a 75% chance of a quarter-point cut at the September meeting, according to the CME Group FedWatch Tool.
On the data front, S&P Global’s flash August PMI surveys showed business activity expanding at the fastest pace this year, with manufacturing at a 39-month high of 53.3 and services easing slightly to 55.4.
Meanwhile, initial jobless claims rose modestly to 235,000 for the week ending 16 August, slightly above expectations of 225,000 and up from 224,000 in the prior week.
