Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on September 19, 2024.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
S&P 500 futures rose Tuesday night as traders braced for additional reports from big tech companies and focused on key indicators of economic growth.
Futures tracking broad market indexes rose 0.2%, while Nasdaq 100 futures rose nearly 0.3%. Dow futures rose 61 points, or 0.1%.
Alphabet capped off a big week for tech mega-cap earnings. Google’s parent company posted strong quarterly revenue growth from its cloud business that beat analysts’ expectations, sending its stock up more than 5.5% after the market closed.
Elsewhere in tech, Snap and Reddit shares rose 10% and 24%, respectively, following strong quarterly results. Chipmaker AMD fell 8% after its fourth-quarter earnings outlook did not impress investors, despite posting strong growth in its data center division.
Tech giants Metaplatforms and Microsoft are scheduled to report on Wednesday, while Apple and Amazon are scheduled to report on Thursday.
On the economic front, investors are looking forward to the first preliminary figures for gross domestic product (GDP) to be released on Wednesday. The report predicts GDP will grow at an annualized rate of 3.1% in the third quarter, according to Dow Jones consensus forecasts. If this is accurate, it would be just 0.1 percentage points higher than the previous quarter, marking the 10th consecutive quarter of expansion. It is also expected to show that inflation is close to or below the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target.
Anticipating Big Tech’s earnings announcements, investors pushed the Nasdaq Composite Index to a new record during Tuesday’s trading session. The Nasdaq rose 0.78% and the S&P 500 rose 0.16%. The Dow 30 underperformed, dropping 0.36%.
“Growth-oriented stocks like the Nasdaq 100 are back in leadership positions,” Rob Howarth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Asset Management, said Tuesday. “We are closely monitoring technology-related earnings releases to ensure that company investments in artificial intelligence and other productivity tools remain robust and support strong future earnings growth.”
Howarth added that they are closely monitoring the quarterly GDP report to understand the health of consumers, who appear to be resilient.
