US Stock Futures Track Wall St. Gains After Major Tech Rally

Futures in US main stock indices surged late Sunday following a rally in Wall Street’s tech sector, triggered by robust earnings from Big Tech firms Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

The S&P 500 Futures climbed 0.28% to 5,146.00 points, while the Nasdaq 100 Futures advanced 0.36% to 17,910.50 points. The Dow Jones Futures expiring in June also traded 0.30% higher at 38,556.00 points.

Stocks in other sectors showed little optimism as it became increasingly apparent that sticky inflation in the world’s largest economy was not cooling down as anticipated.

The core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, jumped 2.8% over the previous year in March, ending above estimates of 2.6%.

Such a situation might sway the Federal Reserve into extending a period of higher interest rates. The central bank’s policy committee is widely seen keeping the benchmark interest rate at 5.25%-5.50% in May during its meeting on Wednesday.

Big Tech-Driven Rally on Solid Q1 from Alphabet, Microsoft

Tech stocks rallied after Alphabet and Microsoft presented strong earnings results for the first quarter, fueling the prospect that artificial intelligence (AI) demand will maintain positive earnings and valuation in the coming months.

The rise sent the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed 2.00% higher at 15,927.90 points on Friday, outperforming its peers, whereas the S&P 500 index jumped 1.00% to 5,099.96 points.

On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial (DJI) Average observed a more muted session, adding 0.40% to 38,239.66 points.

Shares in the Google LLC parent rose more than 10% on Friday as the company exceeded first-quarter expectations and announced its first dividend of $0.20 per share, due to be paid on June 17.

The rally was the sharpest for the stock since it gained 16.00% in July 2015. The internet giant’s shares ended the session at $171.95, bringing its market cap to over $2.1 trillion.

The Redmond, Washington-based software giant also lifted tech stocks with a 2.00% surge on Friday.

The solid earnings from the two firms showed how increased demand for AI could help enhance cloud revenue and signaled that Alphabet and Microsoft are on track to benefit from a boom in the industry.

More quarterly reports from other major Wall Street companies are set to be published in the coming days. Amazon.com. Inc., Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc., Coca-Cola Co., and Eli Lilly and Company will release their first-quarter earnings on Tuesday.