Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq index futures are currently pointing to a sharply lower open on Friday, with stocks likely to give back ground after ending the previous session mostly higher.
Profit taking may contribute to initial weakness on Wall Street following recent strength in the markets, which lifted the Nasdaq and S&P 500 to record highs.
Technology stocks may lead the early pullback, as reflected by the 1.7 percent slump by the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures.
Shares of Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) are plummeting by more than 5 percent in pre-market trading, while shares of Micro (NASDAQ:MU) are plunging by more than 4 percent and shares of Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) are tumbling by more than 3 percent.
A sharp increase in treasury yields is also likely to weigh on the markets, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note surging to its highest levels in almost a year.
The spike in treasury yields comes as recent data showing significant accelerations in the pace of consumer and producer price inflation has led to concerns about the outlook for interest rates.
CME Group’s FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 38.9 percent chance rates will be a quarter point higher following the Federal Reserve’s last meeting of the year, up from just 13.7 percent a week ago.
The downward momentum on Wall Street also comes amid a sharp increase by the price of crude oil, as U.S. crude oil futures are surging by more than 3 percent.
The jump in oil prices comes as the summit between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping produced warm words but yielded little progress on the U.S. war with Iran.
After ending Wednesday’s session modestly lower, the Dow showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Thursday, closing above 50,000 for the first time in three months.
The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 also moved higher, adding to Wednesday’s gains and once again reaching new record closing highs.
The major averages all finished the day firmly positive but off their highs of the session. The Dow advanced 370.26 points or 0.8 percent to 50,063.46, the Nasdaq jumped 232.88 points or 0.9 percent to 26,635.22 and the S&P 500 climbed 56.99 points or 0.9 percent to 7,501.24.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) helped lead the markets higher, with the San Jose-based technology giant soaring by 13.4 percent to a record closing high.
The spike by Cisco comes after the company reported better than expected fiscal third quarter results and provided upbeat guidance. Cisco also revealed plans to cut nearly 4,000 jobs.
Market leader and AI darling Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) also surged by 4.4 percent after a report from Reuters said the U.S. has cleared around 10 Chinese firms to buy the company’s second-most powerful AI chip, the H200.
The report comes amid a closely watched summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing.
After a nearly two-hour long high-stakes meeting at the Great Hall of the People, Trump described the talks as “great.”
The White House said, “The two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to support the free flow of energy.”
A statement issued by China’s foreign ministry said the two leaders agreed to a “constructive strategic stable relationship” as the new orientation for bilateral relations over the next three years and beyond.
In U.S. economic news, a report released by the Commerce Department on Thursday showed retail sales in the U.S. increased in line with economist estimates in the month of April.
The Commerce Department said retail sales climbed by 0.5 percent in April after jumping by a downwardly revised 1.6 percent in March. Economists had expected retail sales to grow by 0.5 percent.
Excluding sales by motor vehicle and parts dealers, retail sales increased by 0.7 percent in April after surging by 1.9 percent in March. Ex-auto sales were expected to increase by 0.6 percent.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department released a separate report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose by more than expected in the week ended May 9th.
The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 211,000, an increase of 12,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 199,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 205,000.
With Cisco leading the way higher, networking stocks showed a substantial move to the upside, driving the NYSE Arca Networking Index up by 3.1 percent to a record closing high.
Considerable strength also emerged among airline stocks, as reflected by the 1.7 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Airline Index.
Software, oil service and brokerage stocks also saw notable strength on the day, while gold stocks moved sharply lower amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal.