Today's Edition
NEW YORK (AP)
Wall Street was poised to open with gains early on Friday as the technology sector clawed back a small portion of this week's losses and bitcoin's slide appeared to stabilise.
Futures for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each rose 0.5% before markets opened. Nasdaq futures climbed 0.6%.
Technology stocks have taken a hit this week as concerns persist over whether massive AI investments by many of the Big Tech firms will pay off.
That theme continued late on Thursday after Amazon said it planned to boost capital spending by more than 50% to $200 billion in AI and other areas.
Its shares are down 7% in premarket trading. American artificial intelligence startup Anthropic ’s new AI tools also fueled the sell-off of software stocks on Wall Street this week, as its sophistication means many traditional software development services and products could be disrupted or replaced.
A number of chipmakers rebounded on Friday, however. Intel rose 1.6%, Advanced Micro Devices gained 2.4% and AI bellwether Nvidia was up 3% in early trading.
Bitcoin, the world's most-traded cryptocurrency, appeared to have stabilised, rebounding from its masses losses to trade around $66,229 Friday.
It tumbled 12%, below $63,000 on Thursday, down from a record above $124,000 in October. The crypto coin is still down 20% for the week.
Companies that enable investors to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, as well as the growing number of companies who have made investing in bitcoin their main business focus, also recouped some of their recent losses.
Strategy rose 6.7% in premarket after a 17% fall Thursday and Coinbase gained 5% after dropping 13.3% a day earlier.
In Europe at midday, the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.2%, while Germany’s DAX gained 0.1% and Britain’s FTSE 100 inched up 0.1%. Most Asian markets declined, but Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.8% to 54,253.68, recovering from losses earlier this week, with technology-related stocks leading gains. SoftBank Group rose 2.2% and chipmaker Tokyo Electron rose 2.6%.
Shares have advanced on expectations that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will win a stronger public mandate for her policies in a general election on Sunday. Shares of Toyota Motor rose 2%.
The carmaker said on Friday its CEO Koji Sato will step down in April, and to be replaced by the company's chief financial officer, Kenta Kon. South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.4% to 5,089.14, weighed down by tech shares. Samsung Electronics, the country’s biggest listed company, fell 0.4%. Chipmaker SK Hynix also lost 0.4%.
India's Sensex traded 0.3% higher.
Gold and silver prices have been volatile this week following a monthslong rally as investors moved into safe haven assets prompted by factors including elevated geopolitical tensions.
The price of gold rose less than 1% on Friday while silver fell another 3.5%.
In energy markets, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 23 cents to $63.06 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave back 16 cents to $67.39 a barrel. The US dollar rose to 157.11 Japanese yen from 157.04 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1791, up from $1.1779.
