- S&P 500 Futures stays positive for the second consecutive day.
- US Jobless Claims helped equities to buck the three-day downtrend on Thursday.
- Ceasefire in Gaza, push for vaccinations in Japan and mixed covid updates from Asia trouble traders.
- Light calendar, pre-PMI caution add to the market’s sluggish performance.
S&P 500 Futures defend bulls, up 0.24% around 4,165, during early Friday. In doing so, the risk barometer remains sidelined amid a lack of major data/events. However, the optimists cheer Wall Street’s first daily gains in four, as well as the Israel-Palestine peace accord, to keep the reins amid a quiet session.
Technology shares led the US equities higher on Thursday following a big slump of 5.5 basis points (bps) in the US 10-year Treasury yield, unchanged around 1.63% by the press time.
The run-up in bonds could be traced to the upbeat prints of US Jobless Claims, down from 450K forecast and 478K previous readouts to 444K for the week ended on May 14. The readings also take the four-week average down to 504.75K versus 535.25K prior. Following the data, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki mentioned that the trend is clear on the declining unemployment claims.
Read: Wall Street Close: Nasdaq leads the week’s first positive day
It’s worth mentioning that the US and Egypt successfully brokered a ceasefire at Gaza, active from 02:00 AM GMT on Friday. Although Israel and Palestine agreed to the terms, their readiness to hit hard if anyone from the party misbehaves can’t be ignored.
Elsewhere, Aussie fears of China taking its 5G and Japan’s addition of Okinawa to the list of prefectures under coronavirus-led emergencies seem to test the bulls.
However, all eyes are on the May month preliminary readings of PMIs for the UK, Eurozone and the US. Given the latest improvement in US data, followed by the market’s upbeat sentiment, bears need a heavy disappointment than already feared from the activity number for re-entry.
