U.S. stock futures were higher Friday morning following a choppy trading session as traders considered Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s latest comments on inflation.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose by 85 points, or 0.27%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.33% and 0.53%, respectively.
Shares of DocuSign surged more than 17% in extended trading after the electronic agreements company reported an earnings beat. The company also issued a third-quarter revenue forecast that was above expectations.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 193 points, or 0.61%, during the regular session on Thursday — closing higher after alternating between gains and losses throughout the day. The S&P 500 rose 0.66%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.60%.
Those gains put all three major averages on pace to snap a 3-week losing streak. Through Thursday, the Dow is up 1.45%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is up 2.09%, and the Nasdaq Composite is 1.99% higher.
Still, stocks remain under pressure as expectations of a 0.75 percentage point rate hike this month grew on Wall Street, after the Fed chair said again that he is “strongly committed” to bringing down inflation.
“I think that people are grossly underestimating what the Fed is going to have to do to fight inflation,” Richard Bernstein Advisors CEO Richard Bernstein said Thursday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.”
“It’s incredibly ironic that investors are even considering a Fed pivot when the real fed funds rate remains about as most negative as it has historically been. So the Fed isn’t even really heartily fighting inflation yet. We don’t have a positive real fed funds rate. It’s hard to argue that we should turn wildly bullish anytime soon,” he added.
