U.S. stocks posted significant gains on Friday as tech giants posted promising earnings reports and markets braced for the release of the U.S. jobs report later in the day. S&P 500 futures were up 0.5%, with those on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 rising as much as 1%. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average remained relatively unchanged.
Among the strongest risers on Friday was Amazon.com, jumping by 7.1% after far exceeding its quarterly profit expectations. Meta Platforms skyrocketed by 17% in premarket trading while Snap Inc. gained 5.8%. Apple Inc. slipped marginally after its earnings in China faltered.
In this month’s US jobs report, Bloomberg economists are expecting to see the US unemployment rate rise from 3.7% in December to 3.8%. A cooling labor market could encourage the Federal Reserve to consider an interest rate cut sooner than expected.