A child wearing a face mask sits on the Charging Bull statue, also known as the Wall Street Bull, following the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) in New York on August 19, 2020.
Carlo Allegri | Reuters
US stock futures rose on Thursday night as traders were set to end a week allowing the broader market to reach a record high.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures traded 101 points higher, up 0.4%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures each rose 0.3%.
Earlier this week, the S&P 500 broke above its full end of February and noted a fresh high. The Nasdaq Composite also broke a record on Thursday. The S&P 500 ended Thursday’s session up 0.4% for the week, while the Nasdaq was above 2% for the week.
The lion’s share of those gains is driven by strong gains in Big Tech shares. Apple is up nearly 3% this week and became the first publicly traded company in the US to reach a market value of $ 2 trillion. Amazon and Alphabet increased more than 4% this week and Microsoft has risen by 2.7% in that time.
“These are great companies and they are likely to continue to deliver solid income growth, but one has to wonder if there is not too much enthusiasm baked into their current share prices,” said Brian Price, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network. “It would be constructive for the overall health of the stock market if we started to look at wider latitudes and other sectors showing relative strength. We’ve had a few small gatherings in cyclical value-oriented sectors since the lows of March , but none that have been sustainable. “
Sentiment, however, was kept in check this week by mixed economic data and a warning from the Federal Reserve.
The Department of Labor said Thursday that the first weekly unemployment claims exceeded 1 million, surpassing a Dow Jones estimate of 923,000. To be sure, reduced persistent claims by more than 600,000.
On Wednesday, the Fed published the minutes of its July meeting which said the coronavirus pandemic “would weigh heavily on economic activity, employment and inflation over the long term.”
The latest data on U.S. existing home sales is due for release Friday at 10 a.m. ET.
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