Thursday’s Nasdaq futures spiked as Meta Platforms soared after announcing strict cost restrictions, while bets on a softer landing for the American economy were buoyed by Jerome Powell’s dovish remarks.
Meta Platforms Inc (META.O), the parent company of Facebook, increased 18.9% in premarket trade after announcing a fresh $40 billion share buyback and announcing that it would reduce expenditures by $5 billion in 2023 to a range of $89 billion to $95 billion.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN.O), Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL.O), and Apple Inc. all saw gains between 1.1% and 4.3% in their respective stock prices. After the market closes, the three corporations are expected to release their quarterly results.
In the previous session, Powell’s admission that inflation was beginning to ease after the U.S. central bank boosted rates by 25 basis points helped Wall Street’s major indexes.
Despite the fact that a U.S. recession is widely expected, Powell’s remarks raised the prospect of a moderate one.
U.S. stock markets have had a great start to the year after a rough 2022, with mega-cap corporations rising on expectations that the Fed will soften its hawkish view for monetary policy, which in turn could relieve some pressure on their valuations.
At 5:18 a.m. ET, Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 179 points, or 1.44%, while S&P 500 e-minis were up 20.75 points, or 0.5%. The Dow was down 45 points, or 0.13%, at this time.
Dow futures were impacted by a 0.2% decrease in Merck & Co. (MRK.N) stock ahead of its quarterly release.