US STOCKS-S&P 500, Nasdaq eye higher open after Fed-driven selloff

Keeping interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, the Fed reminded markets of its undeterred focus on battling inflation and smashed speculations of policy easing kicking off in March. Fresh data on Thursday showed initial jobless claims for the week ended Jan. 27 rose to a seasonally adjusted 224,000, higher than expectations of 212,000, according to economists polled by Reuters.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were set to open higher on Thursday, following a selloff in the previous session after the Federal Reserve dashed hopes for early interest rate cuts, with focus now on economic data and Big Tech earnings later in the day.

The S&P 500 and the tech-laden Nasdaq on Wednesday notched their biggest one-day percentage declines since September and October, respectively, while the Dow saw its steepest decline in six weeks. Keeping interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, the Fed reminded markets of its undeterred focus on battling inflation and smashed speculations of policy easing kicking off in March.

Fresh data on Thursday showed initial jobless claims for the week ended Jan. 27 rose to a seasonally adjusted 224,000, higher than expectations of 212,000, according to economists polled by Reuters. "Probabilities for March is taking a serious hit but that could change overnight ... we're seeing signs of that with jobless claims coming in much hotter than expected," said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital LLC.

Meanwhile, another report showed job cut announcements in January rose to a 10-month high as employers in the financial and technology sectors launched restructuring efforts. Manufacturing PMI readings are also expected after market open.

Focus moves back to Big Tech earnings that would shed light on whether megacap stocks can sustain their recent rally, fueled by the hype around artificial intelligence and hopes of early rate cuts. Apple's iPhone sales are expected to have seen the best growth in five quarters, but analysts see a tough year for the company in China, while investors will monitor whether Amazon.com can cash in on its delivery heft by boosting fee revenue from its "Buy With Prime" service.

Meta Platforms is likely to see a muted impact from generative AI on its advertising business. The three tech giants, up between 0.6% and 1.2% in premarket trading, will report earnings after the closing bell, a day after investors punished Alphabet and Microsoft on mounting costs of developing generative AI-powered products.

At 8:49 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 10 points, or 0.03%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 19.5 points, or 0.4%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 101.5 points, or 0.59%. Merck climbed 2.0% after the drug maker's upbeat fourth-quarter results, while Dow component Honeywell dropped 2.6% after the diversified industrial firm forecast a weak first-quarter profit.

Align Technology jumped 14.3% after forecasting first-quarter revenue above estimates, while Royal Caribbean Group rose 3.9% after projecting 2024 profit above expectations. Qualcomm fell 2.1% on concerns over Android sales in China, even though the chip maker forecast second-quarter profit slightly above estimates and in-line sales.

New York Community Bancorp recovered 2.9% after Wednesday's 38% slump.