United States stock futures traded slightly lower on Thursday night (Friday AEST) as investors monitored renewed tensions between the United States and Iran while awaiting the release of April nonfarm payrolls data.
By 9:45 am AEST (11:45 pm GMT), Dow futures, S&P 500 futures, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.1% apiece.
In after-hours trading, CoreWeave dropped 7.5% after issuing second-quarter revenue guidance below market expectations. The artificial intelligence cloud infrastructure company forecast revenue between US$2.45 billion and $2.6 billion, with the midpoint of $2.53 billion falling short of analysts’ consensus estimate of US$2.69 billion compiled by LSEG.
Airbnb shares declined 1.9% despite reporting first-quarter revenue above expectations. The company posted earnings per share of $0.26, below the expected $0.30, while revenue came in at $2.68 billion compared with forecasts of $2.62 billion.
Akamai Technologies surged 27.7% after the cybersecurity and cloud computing group announced that a leading U.S.-based frontier model provider had committed $1.8 billion over seven years for its Cloud Infrastructure Services business.
The company also reported adjusted first-quarter earnings per share of $1.61, slightly ahead of expectations of $1.60, while revenue of $1.07 billion matched analyst estimates.
Expedia fell 9% after forecasting second-quarter revenue between $4.11 billion and $4.19 billion, compared with consensus estimates of US$4.12 billion.
Block gained 7.7% after posting stronger-than-expected quarterly results. The payments company reported earnings per share of $0.85 on revenue of $6.06 billion, exceeding analyst forecasts of $0.68 per share on revenue of $6.04 billion.
Oil prices moved higher in extended trading, with West Texas Intermediate crude futures rising 2% after the United States and Iran exchanged fire in the Strait of Hormuz, with both sides accusing the other of initiating the confrontation.
U.S. Central Command said in a post on X that military forces “intercepted unprovoked Iranian attacks and responded with self-defence strikes” as three U.S. Navy destroyers transited the strategic waterway.
In a Truth Social post late Thursday, President Donald Trump said there was “no damage done to the three Destroyers, but great damage done to the Iranian attackers”.
Earlier in the regular session, Wall Street indices retreated from record highs as investors continued assessing geopolitical developments in the Middle East.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.4%. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.1%.
Investor attention now turns to Friday’s U.S. labour market report, which is expected to provide further clues on the strength of the economy and the outlook for Federal Reserve policy.
Markets expect that the U.S. economy added 62,000 jobs in April, while the unemployment rate is forecast to remain steady at 4.3%.
Toyota Motor, AMC Networks, Wendy’s and Brookfield Asset Management are among the companies scheduled to report earnings before Friday’s opening bell.
