Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures are currently pointing to a higher open on Friday, with stocks likely to see further upside following the rally seen over the course of the previous session.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) may help lead an extended advance on Wall Street, as the tech giant is surging by 3.6 percent in pre-market trading.
The jump by Apple comes after the company reported fiscal better than expected fiscal second quarter results and forecast revenues for the current quarter above analyst estimates.
Early buying interest may also be generated by an extended pullback by the price of crude oil, with U.S. crude oil futures tumbling by more than 2 percent.
U.S. crude oil futures showed a significant downturn on Thursday, slumping by 1.7 percent after reaching their highest levels in four years.
The continued decrease by crude oil prices comes after an Axios reporter said Iran has delivered its response to the latest U.S. amendments on the agreement to end the war through Pakistani mediators.
After seeing considerable volatility early in the session, stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Thursday. The major averages all showed strong moves to the upside, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reaching new record closing highs.
The major averages gave back some ground going into the end of the day but still posted strong gains. The Dow surged 790.33 points or 1.6 percent to 49,652.14, the S&P 500 jumped 73.06 points or 1 percent to 7,209.01 and the Nasdaq advanced 219.08 points or 0.9 percent to 24,892.31.
The Dow turned in a strong performance throughout the day amid a sharp increase by shares of Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), with the construction equipment spiking by 9.9 percent.
Shares of Caterpillar soared after the company reported better than expected first quarter results and raised its full-year revenue forecast.
Chipmaker Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) also skyrocketed by 15.1 percent on the day after reporting second quarter earnings that exceeded analyst estimates.
Shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) also surged by 10 percent after the Google parent better than expected first quarter revenues.
On the other hand, Facebook parent Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) and software giant Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) moved sharply lower amid concerns about their plans to increase spending.
Traders also kept an eye on the price of crude oil, which pulled back sharply after soaring to its highest levels in four years despite lingering concerns about the Middle East conflict.
Networking stocks turned in some of the market’s best performances on the day, with the NYSE Arca Networking Index spiking by 3.8 percent to a new record closing high.
Substantial strength was also visible among pharmaceutical stocks, as reflected by the 3.7 percent surge by the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index.
Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) helped lead the sector higher, soaring by 9.8 percent after reporting better than expected first quarter results and raising its full-year sale outlook.
Computer hardware, gold, telecom and semiconductor stocks also saw significant strength, while software stocks bucked the uptrend amid the steep drop by Microsoft.