United States stock futures edged higher on Thursday night (Friday AEST), as investors attempted to recover from a sharp Wall Street sell-off driven by surging oil prices and disappointing market reactions to earnings from major technology companies.
By 10:15 am AEST (12:15 am GMT), Dow futures were up 0.03%, S&P 500 futures gained 0.1%, and Nasdaq-100 futures advanced 0.2%.
In extended trading, Intel jumped 4.4% after delivering its strongest quarterly revenue growth in almost 15 years.
The chipmaker reported earnings per share of $0.42, comfortably ahead of the $0.22 expected. Revenue came in at $16.13 billion, surpassing forecasts of $14.43 billion, driven by continued strength in its data centre business.
German software giant SAP rose 1.6% after reporting a 27% year-on-year increase in its cloud backlog to €22.9 billion during the second quarter. The company also posted revenue of €9.88 billion, narrowly beating expectations of €9.86 billion, according to LSEG data.
The gains in after-hours trading followed a difficult session for U.S. equities, as renewed geopolitical tensions pushed oil prices above US$100 a barrel and reignited concerns over inflation ahead of next week's Federal Reserve policy meeting.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite declined 1.2% and 2.2%, respectively.
Technology stocks bore the brunt of the selling after earnings from Tesla and Alphabet disappointed investors.
Tesla plunged nearly 15% after reporting weaker-than-expected second-quarter earnings and negative free cash flow, while Alphabet slid 7% after raising its full-year capital expenditure guidance, reinforcing concerns over escalating artificial intelligence investment costs.
