Futures Pointing To Another Mixed Performance On Wall Street

(RTTNews) - The major U.S. index futures are currently pointing to a mixed open on Friday, with the major averages likely to once again move in opposite directions. While the Nasdaq 100 futures are down by 0.5 percent, the Dow futures are up by 0.2 percent.

A slump by shares of Broadcom (AVGO) may weigh on the Nasdaq, as the chipmaker is tumbling by 5.4 percent in pre-market trading.

Broadcom is under pressure despite reporting better than expected fiscal fourth quarter results and providing upbeat guidance for the current quarter.

Chipmakers Advance Micro Devices (AMD) and Micron Technology (MU) are also seeing pre-market weakness, potentially reflecting a continued rotation out of tech stocks.

The Dow may continue to benefit from the shift toward cyclical stocks after jumping to a new record closing high on Friday. The broader S&P 500 also ended the previous session at a new record closing high.

Overall trading activity may be somewhat subdued, however, with a lack of major U.S. economic data likely to keep some traders on the sidelines.

The major U.S. stock indexes moved in starkly opposite directions in early trading on Thursday, with the Dow moving sharply higher and the Nasdaq showing a significant pullback.

While the Nasdaq climbed well off its worst levels of the day, the tech-heavy index still closed down 60.30 points or 0.3 percent at 23,593.86

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 rose 14.32 points or 0.2 percent to 6,901.00 and the Dow jumped 646.26 points or 1.3 percent to a new record closing high of 48,704.01.

The surge by the Dow partly reflected a sharp increase by shares of Visa (V), with the payment card services company spiking by 6.1 percent after Bank of American upgraded its rating on the stock to Buy from Neutral.

Strong gains by Nike (NKE), UnitedHealth (UNH) and American Express (AXP) also contributed to the jump by the blue chip index.

On the other hand, a steep drop by shares of Oracle (ORCL) weighed on the Nasdaq, as the software giant plunged by 10.8 percent.

The slump by Oracle came after the company reported fiscal second quarter earnings that exceeded analyst estimates but weaker than expected revenues.

Other AI-related stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) also moved to the downside, potentially reflecting renewed valuation concerns.

On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rebounded by more than expected in the week ended December 6th.

The report said initial jobless claims rose to 236,000, an increase of 44,000 from the previous week's revised level of 192,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to climb to 220,000 from the 191,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Gold stocks moved sharply higher along with the price of the precious metal, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index spiking by 4.3 percent to a new record closing high.

Substantial strength was also visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 2.2 percent surge by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. The index reached its best closing level in over seventeen years.

Banking and networking stocks also saw notable strength on the day, while oil producer stocks moved to the downside amid a steep drop by the price of crude oil.

Commodity, Currency Markets

Crude oil futures are edging down $0.01 to $57.59 a barrel after tumbling $0.86 to $57.60 a barrel on Thursday. Meanwhile, after spiking $88.30 to $4,313 ounce in the previous session, gold futures are surging $65.70 to $4,378.70 an ounce.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 155.91 yen versus the 155.57 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Thursday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.1732 compared to yesterday's $1.1738.

Asia

Asian stocks rallied on Friday after the U.S. Federal Reserve delivered an outlook that was not as hawkish as some had anticipated.

The U.S. dollar held steady in Asian trading and gold hovered near a seven-week peak, while oil prices rose on concerns of Venezuelan supply disruptions.

Chinese shares ended mostly higher, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.4 percent to 3,889.35 after Beijing's economic conference pledged to maintain a "proactive" fiscal policy next year that would stimulate both consumption and investment.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shot up 1.8 percent to 25,976.79 on expectations that Chinese authorities may roll out further initiatives to boost growth.

Japanese markets rallied after reports emerged that SoftBank Group and Nvidia are in talks to lead an investment of over $1 billion at a $14 billion valuation in U.S. data center company Skild AI.

Investors also digested data that showed Japanese industrial output grew slightly more than initially estimated in October.

The Nikkei 225 Index jumped 1.4 percent to 50,836.55 ahead of the Bank of Japan's interest rate decision due next week.

The broader Topix Index surged 2 percent to 3,423.83. Shares of technology investor SoftBank climbed 3.9 percent, while semiconductor industry supplier Advantest fell 1.2 percent and Tokyo Electron tumbled 3.4 percent after Oracle's disappointing results.

Seoul stocks posted strong gains to snap a three-day losing streak following robust earnings from Broadcom. The Kospi shot up 1.4 percent to 4,167.16. SK Hynix rose 1.1 percent despite the Korea Exchange's (KRX) issuance of a warning advisory on the chipmaker.

Australian markets climbed to log a third weekly gain following the Federal Reserve's less-hawkish-than-anticipated outlook.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index jumped 1.2 percent to 8,697.30, with financials and miners leading the charge. The broader All Ordinaries Index surged 1.19 percent to 8,983.30.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 Index finished marginally higher at 13,406.91 after a choppy session. Earlier in the day, a survey showed a slight expansion in the country's manufacturing sector in November.

Europe

European stocks have moved higher on Friday, with banks rising on investor optimism that the U.S. Federl Reserve will deliver more interest rate cuts in 2026.

In economic news, the U.K. economy contracted for the second straight month in October, the Office for National Statistics reported.

Gross domestic product unexpectedly edged down by 0.1 percent month-on-month in October, the same pace of decline as seen in September. GDP was forecast to grow 0.1 percent.

On an annual basis, GDP was up 1.1 percent in October, which was weaker than forecasts of 1.4 percent.

Separate data revealed that the visible U.K. trade deficit widened to GBP 22.5 billion in October from GBP 18.9 billion in September.

Elsewhere, German inflation rose to 2.6 percent in November, the federal statistics office said, confirming preliminary data.

While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is nearly unchanged, the German DAX Index is up by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.4 percent.

Shares of BNP Paribas have jumped on news the lender is in talks to sell its 67 percent stake in its Moroccan unit BMCI to Holmarcom Group.

Spanish multi-energy group Repsol has edged up slightly after it agreed to sell a 43.8 percent stake in Outpost solar project in Texas to investment firm Stonepeak for $252.5 million or 220 million euros.

Britan's Aberdeen has also gained after it struck a deal to take over the management of closed-end fund assets totaling £1.5bn from long established U.S. fund manager MFS.

Harbour Energy has soared after it agreed to acquire most subsidiaries of Waldorf Energy Partners and Waldorf Production for $170 million.

U.S. Economic News

Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee is scheduled to participates in a moderated conversation before the 39th Annual Economic Outlook Symposium at 10:35 am ET.