Nasdaq-100 futures drop as Snap and Intel tumble in premarket
U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat to weaker start on Friday, with technology set to come under pressure after troubling results from Snap and Intel. That’s as investors were waiting to see if the S&P 500 can manage another record close.
How are stock-index futures trading?
-
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
YM00,
+0.04%
were steady at 35,498 -
S&P 500 futures
ES00,
-0.07%
were modestly lower at 4,539 -
Nasdaq-100 futures
NQ00,
-0.35%
dropped 0.4% to 15,427
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
fell 6 points, or 0.02%, to 35,603, the S&P 500
SPX,
increased 14 points, or 0.3%, to a record 4,549.78, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
gained 94 points, or 0.62%, to 15216.
What’s driving the market?
In a year that has seen stock-market indexes hit record after record, the S&P 500 hadn’t reached a new high since Sept. 2. A largely upbeat earnings season has gotten the index there this time, though worries over inflation, the continuing COVID-19 pandemic and troubles for China’s economy hover in the background.
While the S&P could squeak out another high on Friday, the going may be tougher for technology stocks and the Nasdaq after Snapchat parent Snap
SNAP,
late Thursday forecast a weaker-than-expected holiday season, mostly blaming privacy changes by Apple
AAPL,
on iOS devices for an expected revenue drop.
Opinion: Snap points to possibility of Apple causing the long-feared ‘ad-mageddon’
“Apple’s new privacy policy is likely to act as a headwind for not just Snap but for the broader sector, the extent of which will be laid bare next week when some of the other social media behemoths such as Facebook release their quarterly results,” said Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, in a note to clients.
“Expectations are that Facebook could face similar issues with the potential for a revenue hit of its own,” she said, adding that a more-than-20% drop in Snap shares after those results have led to a 60% retracement of year-to-date gains.
Across the internet sector, shares of Facebook
FB,
fell nearly 4%, Twitter
TWTR,
4.5%, and Google parent Alphabet
GOOGL,
slipped 1%.
Elsewhere in tech, Intel
INTC,
shares fell 9% in premarket trading, after the chip maker’s revenue and data-center sales just missed expectations, while it also forecast a lower-than-expected earnings and gross margins forecast.
Read: Facebook struggles to figure out how many users it actually has
Honeywell International
HON,
Seagate Technology Holdings
Read More: Nasdaq-100 futures drop as Snap and Intel tumble in premarket