US stock futures higher; falling yields, upbeat Mucron outlook help
Investing.com — U.S. stock futures rose Thursday, bouncing after the previous session’s sharp retreat, helped by falling Treasury yields and a healthy outlook from chipmaker Micron.
By 06:35 ET (11:35 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 160 points, or 0.4%, S&P 500 Futures traded 20 points, or 0.4%, higher and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 110 points, or 0.7%.
The main Wall Street indices closed sharply lower Wednesday, with the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite dropping 1.5% and the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 1.3%, breaking nine day winning streaks for both. The broad-based S&P 500 fell 1.5%, its worst day since September.
That said, all three averages are still on course for strong gains in December as well as this year amid growing optimism that the Federal Reserve will authorise interest rate cuts in the new year.
Helping the tone Thursday has been a fall in U.S. yields, with the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield falling to a seven-month low of 3.847% overnight, as bets that the Fed will move to slash rates from over two-decade highs in the spring continue to grow.
According to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool, there is a more than 68% chance that the Fed will lower borrowing costs by 25 basis points as early as March.
Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker added to those expectations on Wednesday, as he signaled an openness to lowering short-term borrowing costs.
«It's important that we start to move rates down,» he said in an interview, adding that «we don't have to do it too fast, we're not going to do it right away, it's going to take some time.»
Adding to the positive outlook was a healthy outlook from Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU), with the chipmaker forecasting quarterly
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