Nasdaq Futures up 1% With Focus on PCE Data: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) — Stocks rallied at the end of a brutal week as traders awaited the next inflation report, the last big data point before the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting.

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Contracts on the Nasdaq 100 jumped 1% and those on the S&P 500 added 0.8%, suggesting the underlying gauges will pare their weekly slump at the Wall Street open. Europe’s Stoxx 600 benchmark rose 0.5%. Treasuries and the dollar were little changed.

Bargain hunters waded back into stocks on Friday, a sign that the selloff which took the S&P 500 down almost 2% this week may be starting to ease. High-flying tech shares have been hammered the hardest in recent days amid a broader market retreat as concerns mounted over the scope for a US economic slowdown.

“Everything AI has been sold off,” said Kamil Dimmich, a partner at London-based North of South Capital. “Some of it is definitely justified, but for some stocks there may be opportunities for the longer term investor.”

Traders are now awaiting personal spending data that may show inflation coming closer to the Fed’s target, which would give officials room to cut interest rates. Core PCE inflation — the Fed’s preferred price gauge — is likely to be near 2% on a three-month annualized basis, Bloomberg Economics predict.

A soft landing for the US economy could slip away if noisy data delay a rate cut beyond September, according to Bloomberg Opinion columnist Mohamed A. El-Erian.

“We certainly think there is a danger that the Fed is reacting slowly,” given the low US savings rate, said Nick Rees, a foreign-exchange analyst at Monex Europe.

Still, “we doubt today’s data will change many minds on the FOMC. We don’t think the Fed has seen enough yet to cut rates next week,” he said.

Corporate Highlights:

Coursera shares soared as much as 24% in premarket trading on Friday after the online educational company reported second-quarter revenue that topped the average analyst estimate.
Shares in cryptocurrency-linked companies rose in US premarket trading on Friday after Bitcoin rallied as much as 4.2%.
Apple Inc. lost ground in China’s smartphone market in the June quarter after local companies like Huawei Technologies Co. surged ahead. IPhone shipments there slid 3.1% during the period, compared with an 11% year-on-year rise among Android-powered competitors, according to market tracker IDC.
Mercedes-Benz Group AG’s earnings plummeted 19% in the second quarter as sales of its passenger electric vehicles dropped sharply and demand in China weakened.
Eni SpA’s second-quarter profit was better than expected after a strong performance at its upstream business, prompting the company to revise up its guidance for the year.