Tech titans Meta Platforms, Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Inc, Apple Inc and Amazon.com have made progress in pre-market trading after leading the Wall Exchange rebound recently.
The S&P 500 tech sector is up 2.4% so far this week, but is still down 8.7% year-to-date.
U.S. stocks have advanced in six of the past eight sessions as mega-cap gains and strong economic data clip concerns over escalating geopolitical tensions, rising oil prices and calls for aggressive Reserve action. government to combat runaway inflation.
The Fed is expected to raise rates to 2.4% by February 2023, from 0.25-0.50% currently, with the market pricing a 76.8% chance that the Fed will hike 50 basis points in May. [IRPR]
The big banks have struggled to find direction in pre-market trading. The banks’ index has fallen 2.9% so far in March, even as the US central bank raised interest rates last week for the first time since 2018.
As of 6:48 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 21 points, or 0.06%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 3.5 points, or 0.08%, and e-minis of the Nasdaq 100 were up 9.25 points, or 0.06%.
The CBOE volatility index, also known as the Wall Exchange’s fear gauge, rose slightly after closing at its lowest level since February 10.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden is due to visit Poland on Friday to see for himself the refugee crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a day after NATO pledged kyiv new military support while London and Washington have tightened sanctions against Moscow.