By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening higher Friday, rebounding from Thursday’s selloff as bond yields retreat from their recent highs.
At 7:05 AM ET (1205 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 60 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 Futures traded 12 points, or 0.3%, higher, and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 67 points, or 0.5%.
There may be more volatility in the markets Friday, as stock options, stock futures, market index futures and market index options are all set to expire, something known as quadruple witching.
Friday’s gains come after Wall Street struggled Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing 0.5% lower and the S&P 500 dropping 1.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite underperformed, slumping 3% after a spike in U.S. bond yields stoked concerns about paying for higher-valued stocks.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields climbed as high as 1.75% on Thursday, their loftiest level since January 2020, but have slipped back below 1.7% Friday.
Bond markets have experienced sharp moves this week, prompting moves in equities, as the U.S. Federal Reserve said it expected higher economic growth and inflation in the United States this year, although it repeated its pledge to keep its target interest rate near zero.
Also of interest Friday will be the ongoing talks between the U.S. and China in Alaska, the first such get together since President Joe Biden took office. These started badly on Thursday, with heated exchanges between the two sides.
In the corporate sector, FedEx (NYSE:FDX) stocks are higher premarket after the delivery company reported strong quarterly results, while Nike (NYSE:NKE) stocks fell are disappointing guidance from the world’s biggest shoe manufacturer.
Energy stocks are also likely to be in focus given volatile trading in the underlying crude prices. Oil prices pushed higher Friday, but they are still more than 7% lower over the course of the week, on course for the biggest weekly loss since October.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) sees this oil price pullback as a buying opportunity and forecasts Brent crude reaching $80 per barrel this summer even as the recent rally in prices “takes a big breather.”
U.S. crude futures traded 0.9% higher at $60.50 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 0.5% to $63.66.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,736.65/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.2% lower at 1.1896.