Nasdaq futures rise after Meta results, Fed optimism

Nasdaq futures rose because Meta Platforms forecasted strong revenue for the third quarter on Thursday. This positive outlook also lifted technology stocks, including the big ones, and investors felt hopeful that there wouldn’t be another interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve for the rest of the year, after the one in July.

In premarket trading, Meta Platforms saw a 7.6% increase as it reported a significant rise in advertising revenue, surpassing the financial expectations set by Wall Street for the second quarter. This positive development is projected to add around $60 billion to the company’s market value.

The Facebook (NASDAQ:META) parent’s results followed a strong performance by Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) earlier this week, which show that consumers, and advertisers eager to reach them, are spending despite broad economic concerns.

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised interest rates by 25 basis points as expected.

According to Fed Chair Jerome Powell, the economy must still slow down and the labor market needs to weaken in order for inflation to “credibly” return to the U.S. central bank’s 2% target.

David Mericle, the chief U.S. economist at Goldman Sachs, believes that today’s rate hike will probably be the last one for now. He also mentioned that the Federal Reserve will closely monitor inflation data and expects upcoming reports to show a decrease in inflation.

“As a result, we expect that the FOMC will skip September to slow the pace and conclude in November that inflation has slowed enough to make a final hike unnecessary.”

Traders expect only a slim 20% chance that the U.S. central bank could surprise with a quarter-point increase in September.

The Commerce Department is about to announce its initial estimate of second-quarter GDP growth, suggesting that the U.S. gross domestic product likely rose at an annualized rate of 1.8% during that period.

As of 04:42 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis showed a gain of 45 points, equivalent to 0.13%. S&P 500 e-minis were up by 23.75 points, representing a 0.52% increase, while Nasdaq 100 e-minis experienced a rise of 172.5 points, indicating a significant 1.11% surge.

While Nasdaq has led the charge on Wall Street so far this year supported by outsized gains in megacap growth stocks, Dow is catching up as investors bet on sectors beyond technology.

The blue-chips Dow is on track for its 14th straight day of gains after a scorching rally that saw it log its longest winning streak since 1987 in the previous session.

Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) climbed 1.0% after report that it was restructuring its advertising partnership with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) for its lower-priced ad-supported subscription plan and also cutting ad prices.

EBay forecast third-quarter profit below market expectations as the e-commerce platform spent more to bolster categories such as auto parts, refurbished goods and collectibles, sending its shares down 5.3%.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), McDonald’s Corp (NYSE:MCD), Mastercard (NYSE:MA), Ford Motor (NYSE:F) and T-Mobile US (NASDAQ:TMUS) are among some of the companies expected to report their quarterly results during the day.