U.S. stock futures traded higher early Friday as Wall Street looked to build on a strong rebound, supported by impressive earnings from Amazon that boosted confidence in the technology sector.
Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.9%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures advanced 0.39%. S&P 500 futures also moved higher, adding 0.38%.
Asian markets followed the positive momentum. South Korea’s Kospi surged more than 15%, driven by strong gains in semiconductor giants SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rallied over 3%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.27%, and China’s CSI 300 gained 1.24%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, however, slipped 0.11%.
In after-hours trading, Amazon jumped over 9% after reporting second-quarter revenue that exceeded analysts’ expectations. Strong growth in its cloud-computing division reinforced optimism surrounding continued investment in artificial intelligence.
Apple also delivered better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter revenue, fueled by a 22% increase in iPhone sales. Despite the strong top-line results, weaker-than-anticipated services revenue weighed on investor sentiment, sending the stock down about 6% after the close.
Thursday’s rally was largely driven by Microsoft, whose shares soared 16% after the company reported stronger-than-expected Azure cloud growth. The upbeat results sparked a broad rally in AI-related semiconductor stocks, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) climbing more than 8%.
The sharp rebound followed Wednesday’s heavy sell-off, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 1,100 points—its biggest one-day decline since April 2025. Selling pressure intensified after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged, raising concerns that policymakers may be lagging in addressing persistent inflation.
Those concerns also pushed Treasury yields higher. The 30-year U.S. Treasury yield rose 6 basis points on Wednesday to above 5.2%, hovering near its highest level since 2007.
Despite the week’s heightened volatility, the major U.S. indexes remained on course to post weekly gains. Heading into Friday, the Dow was up approximately 0.5% for the week, while the S&P 500 had gained around 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead roughly 0.6%.
