U.S. stock futures fell on Friday as the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are on pace to post a losing week after the Federal Reserve’s latest policy update.
Futures for the Dow lost 131 points. S&P 500 futures were lower by 0.3% and Nasdaq-100 futures dipped 0.1%
The blue-chip Dow has lost 1.9% week to date, on pace for its worst week since January. The S&P 500 has fallen 0.6%. But the Nasdaq has gained 0.65% on the week.
Most commodities prices rebounded a bit on Friday following sharp declines this week as China attempts to cool rising prices and the U.S. dollar strengthens. Futures prices for copper, gold, and platinum rebounded Friday, but were still down big for the week.
The Friday bounce in prices helped push some materials stocks higher in early trading. Newmont gained nearly 2% in premarket trading.
Chip stocks, which have had a good week, looked set to continue their run on Friday with shares of Nvidia higher by about 1% in premarket trading.
Adobe shares gained about 3% in premarket trading after earnings and revenue topped estimates.
The highly anticipated decision from the Federal Reserve Wednesday caused a sell-off in equities that carried through to a second day. The central bank announced it’s keeping interest rates unchanged, raised its 2021 inflation expectation to 3.4% and moved planned interest rate hikes forward.
“Investors may be interpreting the Fed’s hawkish tilt Wednesday as a sign that an extended US post-pandemic economic expansion may be a bit harder to achieve in a potentially emerging environment of less accommodative monetary policy,” said Goldman Sachs’ Chris Hussey in a note.
On Thursday, the Labor Department reported initial jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week, totaling 412,000, an increase of 37,000 from the previous week and higher than the 360,000 estimate.
