Futures rise as Facebook lifts high-growth stocks
Facebook up, sees costs moderating after 2019
New York: US stock index futures rose on Wednesday, setting Wall Street for a second straight day of gains at the end of a brutal month, with Facebook’s quarterly report helping boost high-growth internet names.
Shares of Facebook Inc climbed 5 per cent in premarket trading after the social media giant eased investor concerns by forecasting that margins would stop shrinking after 2019 as costs from scandals ease up.
While Facebook reported a second-straight quarter of record-low user growth, confirming investors’ fears of a slowing growth, analysts said the results were not as bad as feared.
That brought some relief to the so-called FANG group.
Amazon.com Inc rose 1.7 per cent, Netflix Inc climbed 2.2 per cent and Google-parent Alphabet Inc gained 1.5 per cent.
The FANG group and Apple Inc have led the slide on Wall Street this month, which has left the S&P 500 and Dow Industrials with barely any gains for the year, fanned by concerns over trade, higher borrowing and wage costs, fears of corporate earnings peaking and a host of geopolitical worries.
The S&P has not posted gains for two sessions in a row so far in October, during which the index has tumbled nearly 8 per cent, on pace for its biggest monthly drop in more than eight years.
— Reuters