<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. stock index futures fell on Friday, signaling a cautious close to the week as renewed pressure on technology shares combined with investor nerves ahead of key U.S. inflation data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At 05:05 ET (10:05 GMT), Dow Jones Futures were down 250 points, or 0.5%, S&P 500 Futures slipped 0.4%, and Nasdaq 100 Futures declined 0.3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wall Street delivered a mixed performance on Thursday, with tech stocks once again underperforming. The S&P 500 fell 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 1.2%, weighed down by losses in mega-cap technology names. In contrast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged slightly higher, supported by rotation into non-tech sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For February, the divergence has been stark: the Nasdaq is down about 2.5% for the month, the S&P 500 has lost roughly 0.4%, while the Dow is up 1.2%, benefiting from investor preference for more defensive and value-oriented stocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), the world\u2019s most valuable company, was the biggest drag on markets Thursday, tumbling more than 5% despite reporting strong quarterly earnings. Investors appeared focused on questions around shareholder returns and rising cash balances, alongside profit-taking after a strong pre-earnings rally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) shares bucked the broader tech trend, rising even after issuing a subdued revenue outlook. Analysts described the results as \u201cno worse than feared,\u201d offering modest relief to investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) drew attention after surging more than 6% in premarket trading. The streaming giant confirmed it would not raise its bid for Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD), after Warner determined that Paramount Skydance\u2019s revised $31-per-share offer was superior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Netflix said matching the higher bid would no longer be financially attractive, effectively signaling an end to one of the most high-profile takeover battles in the media sector. Even so, Netflix stands to receive a $2.8 billion termination fee should Warner proceed with Paramount\u2019s offer, with shareholders scheduled to vote on the Netflix deal on March 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere, Block (NYSE:XYZ) surged 18% after announcing plans to cut more than 4,000 jobs\u2014nearly half its workforce\u2014as part of a sweeping restructuring aimed at embedding artificial intelligence across its operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV), however, slid more than 10% after reporting a wider-than-expected loss and flagging even higher capital expenditure plans, unsettling investors already wary of heavy spending across the cloud and AI infrastructure space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking ahead, markets are bracing for the release of January\u2019s U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI), a key gauge of wholesale inflation. Economists expect both headline and core PPI to rise 0.3% month-on-month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee reiterated expectations for multiple interest-rate cuts later this year, but cautioned that the Federal Reserve must proceed carefully to avoid reigniting inflation or overheating the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With tech under pressure, inflation data looming, and investor confidence fragile, markets appear set to end the week on a cautious note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. stock index futures fell on Friday, signaling a cautious close to the week as renewed pressure on technology shares combined with investor nerves ahead of key U.S. inflation data. At 05:05 ET (10:05 GMT), Dow Jones Futures were down 250 points, or 0.5%, S&P 500 Futures slipped 0.4%, and Nasdaq 100 Futures declined 0.3%. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":53440,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6827,49,39,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-daily-economic-reports","category-economic-reports","category-global-stock-markets","category-market-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124243,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124242\/revisions\/124243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}