By Sruthi Shankar and Shristi Achar A
(Reuters) -U.S. stocks were set to rise on Friday, as investors eagerly awaited comments from Federal Reserve officials to get more clarity on the U.S. monetary policy path, after economic data this week supported bets of interest rate cuts.
Wall Street indexes were inching closer to record highs following a selloff last month, as a slew of economic data pointed to a cooling U.S. labor market, raising expectations that the Fed will cut borrowing costs more than once this year.
A much better-than-expected earnings season also helped put the benchmark and the tech-heavy on track for their third consecutive week of gains.
The blue-chip Dow, currently on its longest daily winning run since December, was set for a fourth week of gains.
“This is the classic point of bad news is good news because the employment data over the last two weeks has been what the Fed has finally been looking for,” said Hugh Anderson, managing director at HighTower Advisors.
“Of course it isn’t good for the job seeker, but it creates an optimistic environment for the market because now they’re looking for their interest rate cuts.”
Traders are currently pricing in 45 basis points of rate cuts by the end of 2024, according to LSEG’s rate probabilities tool, with the first cut of 25 bps seen in September.
While most Fed policymakers have reiterated that the next policy move will be a rate cut, doubt still remains about when the easing will begin.
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There is “considerable” uncertainty about where U.S. inflation will head in coming months, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said on Thursday.
Speeches from a host of Fed policymakers — Governor Michelle Bowman, Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari, Dallas President Lorie Logan and Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr — during the day, could offer more clues on the rate path.
Investors will also closely monitor the University of Michigan’s preliminary survey of consumer sentiment for May, which is due at 10 a.m. ET.
By 8:25 a.m. ET, rose 18.25 points, or 0.35%. climbed 82.75 points, or 0.46%, and added 107 points, or 0.27%.
Nvidia (NASDAQ:) gained 1.4% in premarket trading after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world’s largest chipmaker and a major supplier to Nvidia, reported a near 60% jump in April sales.
Novavax (NASDAQ:) shares doubled in value after the vaccine maker removed doubts about its ability to remain in business and struck a licensing deal worth up to $1.2 billion with Sanofi (NASDAQ:) for COVID-19 vaccines.
Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:) fell 8% after it forecast second-quarter revenue and profit below Wall Street estimates, anticipating weak demand for its content delivery services.
SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:), which allows humans to interact conversationally with products such as phones and cars through its technology, jumped 15.2% after its first-quarter revenue beat market estimates.
