Wall Street Seen Opening On Mixed Note; Earnings, Economic Data Hold The Key

(RTTNews) - Futures indicate a mixed start for U.S. stocks on Wall Street, where the focus is on earnings updates from big name tech companies Thursday morning. Data on fourth-quarter GDP and Personal Consumption Expenditure are likely to make a significant impact on the mood.

While the Dow futures are down 0.1 percent, the S&P futures and the Nasdaq futures are up 0.17 percent, and 0.33 percent, respectively.

In earnings news, Meta Platforms reported fourth-quarter EPS of $8.02, beating analyst estimates for earnings of $6.73. Revenue for the quarter came in at $48.39 billion, up from forecast of $47.03 billion. The company sees 2025 first-quarter revenue of $39.50 billion - $41.50 billion.

Microsoft Inc., reported net income of of $24.1 billion, or $3.23 per share, for the October - December 2024 quarter, beating expectations. The company posted a revenue of $69.6 billion in the quarter, up 12 percent from the previous year.

Tesla Inc. announced fourth-quarter lower than expected earnings of $2.32 billion, or $0.66 per share, compared with $7.93 billion, or $2.27 per share, last year.

Wall Street closed weak on Wednesday despite the major averages climbing off their worst levels in late-day trading.

The Nasdaq slid 101.26 points or 0.5 percent to 19,632.32, the S&P 500 fell 28.39 points or 0.5 percent to 6,039.31 and the Dow dipped 136.83 points or 0.3 percent to 44,713.52.

The lower close on Wall Street came after the Federal Reserve announced its widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged following its first monetary policy meeting of 2025.

The decision to leave rates unchanged came as the Fed noted inflation remains "somewhat elevated" and reiterated its strong commitment to returning inflation to its 2 percent objective.

Notably, the Fed removed a phrase included in previous statements indicating that inflation has "made progress" towards it target.

In overseas trading, Asian stocks closed mostly higher in thin holiday trading on Thursday ,as investors digested broadly positive tech earnings from the U.S. and awaited clarity on U.S. President Trump's tariff policies, especially on Canada, Mexico and China.

The major European markets are up in positive territory with investors digesting a slew of earnings news and economic data, and awaiting the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement.

In commodities, crude oil futures are up marginally at $72.67 a barrel, and gold futures are gaining $28.60 or 1.06% at $2,798.40 an ounce.