Advertisment
Futures contracts tied to the major U.S. stock indexes were higher Friday morning as investors prepared to end a down week for equities amid concerns the White House could seek a hike to the capital gains tax.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials inched higher 11 points to 33,720.
Futures for the S&P 500 jumped 6.75 points, or 0.2%, to 4,134.5.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite index advanced 14.5 points, or 0.1%, to 13,766.25.
Week to date, the S&P 500 had slid 1.2%, Dow was down 1.1%,and NASDAQ gave back 1.6%.
The rebound followed a turbulent session for equities after multiple news outlets reported Thursday afternoon that President Joe Biden is slated to propose much higher capital gains taxes for the rich.
Bloomberg News reported that Biden is planning a capital gains tax hike to as high as 43.4% for wealthy Americans.
The proposal would hike the capital gains rate to 39.6% for those earning $1 million or more, up from 20% currently, according to Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters and the New York Times later also reported similar stories.
Both chipmaker Intel and social media platform Snap reported earnings for the first calendar quarter Thursday after the closing bell.
Though Intel’s revenues and earnings were better than what Wall Street had been expecting, it issued second-quarter earnings guidance below analysts’ hopes. Intel shares were down 2.8% in pre-market trading.
Snap shares, meanwhile, added 5% in premarket trading after it said it saw accelerating revenue growth and strong user numbers during the first quarter. Snap broke even on the bottom line while posting revenue of $770 million.
Corporations have for the most part managed to beat Wall Street’s forecasts thus far into earnings season. Still, strong first-quarter results have been met with a more tepid response from investors, who have not, to date, snapped up shares of companies with some of the best results.
Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 sank 0.6% early Friday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index gained 0.1%.
Oil prices added 26 cents to $61.69 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices hiked $8.20 to $1,790.20 U.S.
