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Investing.com — U.S. stock futures rose Friday, ending a difficult week on a positive note, helped by healthy earnings from both Amazon and Intel.
By 06:00 ET (10:00 GMT), the contract was up 60 points, or 0.2%, traded 20 points, or 0.5%, higher and climbed 135 points, or 1%.
The major indices closed sharply lower Wednesday, with the tech-heavy shedding 1.8%, on course for weekly losses of about 3% and on pace for its third straight losing week.
The broad-based closed 1.2% lower, off 2% for the week, while the blue chip dropped 0.8%, its sixth negative session in seven, set for a weekly loss of 1%.
Amazon’s earnings boost confidence
Amazon (NASDAQ:) offered up quarterly earnings after the close Thursday that went a long way to securing its position as the world’s biggest cloud provider and online retailer.
Amazon Web Services, its cloud business segment, grew revenue 12% to $23.1 billion, while advertising revenue jumped 26% to $12.06 billion from a year earlier.
Additionally, chip manufacturer Intel (NASDAQ:) delivered better-than-expected guidance for the current quarter after third-quarter earnings markedly beat analyst estimates amid signs PC demand has bottomed out.
These positive results have boosted overall confidence at the end of what has been a difficult week on Wall Street.
Oil giants set to report
The earnings focus turns Friday away from the tech sector and towards the big energy companies.
Oil giants Chevron (NYSE:) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:) are due to report before the opening bell, and are expected to report earnings per share of $3.60 on revenue of $51.4 billion and EPS of $2.37 on revenue of $94 billion, respectively
Consumer product company Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:) is also scheduled to report, while Ford (NYSE:) stock fell premarket after the auto giant withdrew its full-year results forecast due to “uncertainty” over the pending ratification of its deal with the United Auto Workers union.
September PCE index to guide the Fed
Friday’s report on inflation comes in the form of the , the reading of which is the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge.
The September personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE, is expected to rise 3.4% for the year and 0.3% for the month, while the core PCE, which strips out fuel and energy prices, is expected to rise 3.7% for the year and 0.3% for the month.
Oil rebound on U.S. air strikes
Crude prices rose Friday on concerns of a widening of the Israel-Hamas conflict, potentially impacting supply in this oil-rich region.
By 06:00 ET, the futures traded 2.6% higher at $85.34 a barrel, while the contract climbed 2.6% to $90.16 a barrel.
The crude market rose after the Pentagon confirmed that the U.S. had launched strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria that it claimed were used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and were in response to recent attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
These strikes increased worries of a wider war in the Middle East, potentially impacting crude shipments from Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, and other large producers in the Gulf.
However, both benchmarks are still on track to post their first weekly drop in three weeks as the geopolitical premium built on these fears has ebbed as there has been no disruption of oil supply so far.
(Oliver Gray contributed to this item.)
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