U.S. stock futures climbed Friday, buoyed by strong quarterly performances from Amazon and Apple that closed out a significant week for the technology sector.
S&P 500 futures rose 0.76%, or 51.50 points to 6,873.90 points, with Nasdaq 100 futures—heavily weighted toward technology stocks—up 1.29%, or 332.60 points, to 26,067.40 points. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures ticked up 0.16%, or 78.20 points, to 47,600.00 points.
Amazon surged about 13% to $250.60 per share in premarket trading. Its third-quarter earnings substantially exceeded analyst expectations, led by Amazon Web Services, which reported a 20% year-on-year revenue increase. The result suggested continued robust demand from enterprise clients, despite recent disruptions from a global cloud outage.
Apple also delivered results ahead of consensus and issued an optimistic outlook for the critical December quarter, pushing its shares up about 2% to $276.86 per share.
Netflix drew attention as well, announcing a 10-for-1 stock split—fueling further bullish sentiment across the tech space.
Friday’s gains come after a challenging prior session, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite falling 1% and 1.6%, respectively. Those declines were driven by sharp drops in Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia, as investors reacted to growing concerns around surging expenses in AI infrastructure. Meta experienced its steepest single-day selloff in three years.
Sentiment was further supported by the easing of U.S.-China tensions, after President Trump and President Xi Jinping reached a one-year trade truce in South Korea — entailing a 10% cut in tariffs on certain Chinese goods and a suspension of China’s rare-earth export curbs.
Investors are also awaiting commentary from Federal Reserve officials later Friday, after this week’s policy meeting delivered a widely anticipated interest rate cut and exposed growing rifts among policymakers regarding future rate directions.
