US pre-open: Futures higher following Dow's worst session since March 2023

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Friday as America prepares for the Memorial Day long weekend. As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 014%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.30% and 0.31% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed a whopping 605.78 points lower on Thursday in what was the blue-chip's worst session in over a year as robust economic data dented hopes that the Federal Reserve may soon look to lower interest rates.

Scope Markets' Joshua Mahony said: "Even a helping hand from Nvidia failed to stem the declines seen yesterday, with the 1.5% Dow decline highlighting the dour sentiment seen throughout markets when you strip out the effects of a 9% gain for the chip giant. Nvidia found itself as a lone oasis in a sea of red, with the rest of the Mag7 stocks following the wider trend lower. With earnings season largely behind us, we will now see markets following the economic data more closely, and unfortunately, we look set for a protracted period of high rates if recent inflation data is anything to go by. Yesterday's US PMI survey saw a sharp rise across both manufacturing and services, highlighting continued strength that pours cold water on disinflationary hopes with a sharp surge in services sector activity pushing overall business activity to a two-year high. Unfortunately, the underlying price pressures seen within both manufacturing and services sector activity pushed higher yet, highlighting the fact that the final push back down to the Fed's 2% will likely remain elusive for some time yet.

"Looking ahead, all eyes turn to the release of the latest US core durable goods data, with markets hoping for weakness given the 'good news is bad news' construct highlighted by yesterday's PMI release. With the FOMC minutes highlighting a mixed range of views that included the potential to hike rates further, any pop in the core durable goods orders figure could further drive risk-off sentiment given the implications for monetary policy."

On the macro front, April durable goods orders will be published at 1330 BST, while the University of Michigan's May consumer sentiment index will follow at 1500 BST.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com