US stock futures turned higher early Friday, pointing cautiously to a rebound from a tech bruising as Wall Street reassessed worries about the impact of AI disruption and the risks of hefty Big Tech spending.
S&P 500 futures (ES=F) rose 0.5%, while Nasdaq 100 futures (NQ=F) added 0.7%, retracing earlier premarket losses. Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) also switched course, moving up 0.4%, on the heels of sharp closing losses on Wall Street on Thursday.
The tentative risk-on tone extended beyond stocks, as bitcoin (BTC-USD) climbed back above $65,000, having touched a 16-month low overnight. But the biggest cryptocurrency is still on track for its worst weekly performance since 2022 after wiping out all of its post-Trump gains this week.
Strategy (MSTR) revealed a loss for the quarter that was precipitated by that steep sell-off, which initially weighed on shares. But the stock was up almost 6% before the bell as bitcoin revived and Strategy’s CEO played down concerns about debt-servicing risks.
Some tech gloom persisted, as Amazon’s (AMZN) shares tumbled 8%. In its earnings, the major cloud provider outlined plans for a massive 2026 jump in spending to least $200 billion, even as its forecast for operating income fell short.
Elsewhere, Stellantis (STLA, STLAM.MI) warned it will take a charge of over €22 billion ($26 billion) in a plan to scale back its EV push. Shares in the Jeep maker tanked over 20% on Wall Street and in Milan, adding to a picture of EV malaise painted by this week’s $60 billion wipeout for Chinese carmaker BYD (BYDDF, 1211.HK).
In commodities, silver (SI=F) whipsawed but broadly resumed its decline as Chinese selling continued ahead of a national holiday.
Looking ahead, the release of the closely watched January jobs report, originally scheduled for Friday, has been pushed to Wednesday next week. Fresh signs of trouble in the labor market emerged this week, as job openings sank to their lowest level since 2020 and layoff announcements surged.
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