Futures tied to the Nasdaq 100 were higher on Thursday, buoyed by a sharp rise in Facebook parent Meta Platforms.
Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1.3%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.5%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 43 points, or 0.1%.
Meta surged more than 19% in premarket trading after reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue and announcing a $40 billion stock buyback. This helps investors look at losses in the business unit that oversees the Metaverse.
The moves followed a positive day for all three major indexes. The S&P 500 rose 1.05% on Wednesday, while the Nasdaq Composite closed up 2%. Meanwhile, the Dow edged up 0.02% after falling more than 500 points earlier in the day.
It rose on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve announced a 0.25 percentage point rate hike. That marked a pullback from the 0.5 percentage point increase at the December meeting, adding to investor optimism that inflation was cooling enough to get the central bank’s attention. But the central bank gave no sign of an imminent pause in rate hikes.
“Traders think the Fed is behind the curve and the inflation threat is fading fast,” said Jamie Dutta, market analyst at Vantage. “The Fed is open to changing its mind, and if the economy loses momentum, the Fed may have to change its mind.”
Investors will focus on earnings reports from household names including Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Ford Motor and Starbucks on Thursday. They will also look for data on jobless claims, productivity, labor costs and factory orders.