US STOCKS-Futures range-bound as rally loses some steam

U.S. stock index futures were treading water on Friday, signaling a pause on Wall Street after a rally driven by expectations of interest-rate cuts this year. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were still on course for a fourth straight week of gains, while the blue-chip Dow was on track for its fifth weekly advance, supported by strong quarterly results and slowing inflation data that bolstered the case for rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

U.S. stock index futures were treading water on Friday, signaling a pause on Wall Street after a rally driven by expectations of interest-rate cuts this year.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were still on course for a fourth straight week of gains, while the blue-chip Dow was on track for its fifth weekly advance, supported by strong quarterly results and slowing inflation data that bolstered the case for rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. All three main indexes touched record highs on Thursday and the Dow briefly crossed the 40,000 milestone, before reversing gains and closing in the red.

"We believe the rally has been well-supported. The first-quarter earnings results and guidance provided us with greater conviction for our view of 9% earnings growth for the S&P 500 in 2024, with earnings growth broadening out beyond the large-cap growth companies," Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said in a note. "Additionally, U.S. economic data has been in line with our base case for a soft landing."

Investors will parse comments from Fed officials Christopher Waller and Mary Daly, expected after the opening bell, for further cues on the central bank's monetary policy path. Traders currently see a 68% chance of the first rate cut in September, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

At 07:00 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 5 points, or 0.01%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 0.5 points, or 0.01%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 18 points, or 0.1%. Advanced Micro Devices gained 2.3% in premarket trading after Microsoft said it plans to offer its cloud computing customers a platform of AMD artificial intelligence chips that will compete with components made by Nvidia.

Reddit rose 15.8% on partnering with OpenAI to bring its content to ChatGPT. Cryptocurrency-linked stocks rose, tracking higher bitcoin prices. Crypto exchange Coinbase Global as well as crypto miners Riot Platforms Inc and Marathon Digital gained between 1.8% and 2.5%.

DXC Technology shed 22.9% after the IT management firm forecast fiscal 2025 revenue below Street estimates.

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