US STOCKS-Nasdaq eyes higher open on tech earnings cheer; strong jobs data weighs
(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock markets, click or type LIVE/ in a news window.)
*
Jan non-farm payrolls jump sharply
*
Cigna rises after lifting 2024 profit view
*
Exxon, Chevron climb after Q4 profit beat
*
Futures: Dow off 0.17%, S&P up 0.29%, Nasdaq up 0.64%
(Updated at 8:46 a.m. ET/1346 GMT)
By Ankika Biswas and Johann M Cherian
Feb 2 (Reuters) -
The tech-laden Nasdaq was set for a positive open on Friday as investors cheered robust quarterly reports from Meta Platforms and Amazon.com, while a strong jobs report kept the upbeat sentiment in check.
A
Labor Department report
showed non-farm payrolls rose by 353,000 in January, sharply higher than the 180,000 expected by economists polled by Reuters.
Unemployment came in at 3.7% in January, lower than the forecast of 3.8%.
"The strong jobs report indicates that demand in the labor market is higher than expected," said Richard Flynn, managing director at Charles Schwab UK.
"While lower interest rates would surely be welcomed, it is becoming increasingly clear that markets and the economy are coping well with the high rate environment, so investors are perhaps feeling that the need for monetary policy to ease is less urgent."
Boosting sentiment, Meta surged 17.2% in premarket trading on issuing its first dividend days ahead of Facebook's 20th anniversary, along with a revenue and profit beat on robust advertising sales in the holiday shopping period.
Other social media firms Snap and Pinterest rose nearly 5% each.
Amazon.com jumped 7.2% following a fourth-quarter revenue beat as new generative AI features in cloud and ecommerce businesses spurred robust growth during the critical holiday period.
"It feels a healthier situation to have the markets driven by strong earnings and corporate success rather than ongoing guesswork about when central banks are going to cut rates," said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
On the flip side, Apple lost 3.5% after forecasting a drop in iPhone sales and targeting overall revenue $6 billion below expectations, as its China business took a hit.
Earnings from the tech trio, part of the group of megacap stocks popularly called the "Magnificent 7", likely offset some concerns over their rich valuations and outsized weighting in the S&P 500, after Alphabet and Microsoft's disappointing AI cost projections and Tesla's growth warning.
Nvidia, another member of the group of top-tier stocks, experienced a record-breaking surge in market value in January, driven by heightened artificial intelligence optimism, positive analyst projections, and announcement of expanded AI offerings.
In the previous session, Wall Street rebounded from a sell-off on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve quashed lingering bets that interest-rate cuts could begin as early as March.
At 8:46 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 64 points, or 0.17%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 14.25 points, or 0.29%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 111 points, or 0.64%.
Further on the earnings front, Cigna rose 2.9% as the health insurer raised its annual profit forecast after lower-than-expected medical costs and strong demand in its pharmacy benefit management unit helped it beat fourth-quarter profit estimates.
Bristol Myers Squibb posted
upbeat results
for the fourth quarter, sending the drugmaker's shares up 1.0%.
Chipmaker Microchip Technology dropped 2.8% after forecasting fourth-quarter net sales below estimates, while footwear maker Skechers U.S.A lost 10% after a downbeat 2024 forecast. (Reporting by Ankika Biswas and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Additional Reporting by Shubham Batra; Editing by Maju Samuel)
