Stock Futures Point to a Rebound After Thursday's Pullback

Stock futures bounce back on Friday morning, recovering from a pullback a day earlier.
By Keris Alison Lahiff ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stock futures bounced back on Friday morning, recovering from a pullback a day earlier after the Federal Reserve's comments regarding interest rates triggered market volatility. 

It's been a bumpy ride for stock markets this week. Equities surged more than 1% on Wednesday after the Fed signaled a restrained approach to hiking interest rates, before erasing most of those gains on Thursday as crude oil bottomed out below $44 a barrel. 

S&P 500 futures were up 0.34% on Friday, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 0.49%, and Nasdaq futures climbed 0.36%. 

With no economic data due out Friday, trading could be more volatile than usual given it is a quadruple-witching session, one of four days of the year in which futures and options contracts expire at once.

European leaders met again to discuss Greece's debt crisis. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras agreed to hasten the details of his reform plans in exchange for bailout funds. Germany's DAX was up 1%, France's CAC 40 added 0.27%, and the FTSE 100 in London edged 0.09% higher. 

The euro strengthened against the U.S. dollar in response to signs of progress at the meeting. The euro climbed 0.48% against the greenback, on track for its best weekly gain in 18 months. 

China's Shanghai Composite surged 1% after business confidence in the world's second-largest economy fell for a third straight month. The MNI China Business Indicator slipped to 52.2 in March from 52.8 in February, another weaker piece of data that could prompt the People's Bank of China to introduce further monetary easing. 

Phillips (PHG) - Get Report shares were on watch after Bloomberg reported KKR and CVC Capital were close to a deal to buy 80% of its lighting unit. The deal would be worth around 2.5 billion euros. 

Nike (NKE) - Get Report jumped nearly 5% in premarket trading after reporting quarterly profit up 16% and revenue up 7%. Sales were slightly lower than expected as the sports retailer faced foreign exchange headwinds. 

Tiffany (TIF) - Get Report dropped more than 3% after earning $1.47 a share in its recent quarter, missing estimates of $1.51. Net sales increased 3% on a constant-currency basis. 

Darden Restaurants (DRI) - Get Report jumped 4.4% as third-quarter earnings of 99 cents a share beat by 15 cents and sales surged nearly 7%. The restaurant chain said comparable-restaurant sales climbed 3.2% on stronger pricing and increased traffic. 

Bank of New York Mellon (BK) - Get Report was on watch after settling foreign exchange probes with federal and state officials. The bank agreed to pay $714 million to settle the allegations of fraud. Shares were flat in premarket trading. 

Biogen (BIIB) - Get Report added 6.7% after detailing the latest developments of its experimental drug for Alzheimer's disease at a conference in France. Clinical tests for the drug showed improved cognition in patients. 

Loading ...