(Reuters) - Nasdaq futures surged on Friday after stellar results from Amazon, Microsoft and Intel, and other equity index futures pared losses after data showed the economy slowed in the first quarter, but not as much as feared.
Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) surged 9.0 percent in premarket trading after the world’s largest online retailer more than doubled its profit and said it expects strong spring results.
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) rose 3.2 percent after topping Wall Street forecasts for profit, while Intel (INTC.O) gained 6.6 percent as strength in its data center business drove a profit beat.
The results come a day after Facebook’s (FB.O) impressive earnings beat led a rebound in technology stocks and helped Wall Street close above 1 percent.
“The market is a little hesitant after a very strong day in response to some earnings that were taken quite positively,” said Andre Bakhos, managing director at New Vines Capital LLC in Bernardsville, New Jersey.
Nearly half of the S&P 500 firms reported first-quarter earnings through Thursday, and 79.7 percent have topped profit expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data. The latest estimate for earnings growth was 23.1 percent, up from about 18 percent since the start of season.
A tug-of-war between strong earnings and concerns about inflation and interest rates have made the markets more volatile.
The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield, the benchmark of global interest rates, retreated further from the 3 percent level on Friday.
The U.S. economy slowed in the first quarter as consumer spending grew at its weakest pace in nearly five years, but the setback is likely temporary against the backdrop of a tightening labor market and large fiscal stimulus.
Gross domestic product rose at an annual rate of 2.3 percent, down from 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter, but still above economists’ expectations of a 2 percent rise.
The Jan-March quarter numbers tend to be soft because of a seasonal quirk and Fed officials are likely to shrug off the weak data.
At 8:58 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were down 35 points, or 0.14 percent. S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were down 0.25 points, or 0.01 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were up 35.25 points, or 0.52 percent.
Sprint (S.N) surged more than 6.8 percent after Reuters reported, citing sources, the company and fellow wireless carrier T-Mobile (TMUS.O) have made progress in negotiating merger terms and are aiming to successfully complete deal talks as early as next week.
Among decliners, Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) fell 1.5 percent after it reported stagnant store traffic at established U.S. cafes.
Colgate-Palmolive (CL.N) dropped 2.4 percent after the company’s quarterly sales just met analysts’ estimates as demand in emerging markets was below its expectations.
Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta
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