Stock futures are climbed on Friday morning as investors looked toward the end of a week that has ushered in a recovery rally.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 59 points, or 0.15%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures both climbed by 0.2% and 0.4% respectively.
Those moves come after a strong day on Wall Street. The Dow gained more than 500 points on Thursday, rising more than 1% along with the broad S&P 500. The Nasdaq Composite jumped more than 2% as technology shares led the ascent.
Thursday marked the sixth straight winning day for both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. With respective gains of more than 3% and 5% on the week, both are on track to notch their biggest weekly gains since November. The Dow has climbed more than 2% this week, which would also mark its best performance this year.
Retail sales data released Thursday came in much stronger than economists expected, while weekly jobless claims fell. Both offered evidence that recession fears, which helped spark a global sell-off earlier this month, were overblown.
These stats came after inflation readings released earlier this week bolstered hopes that a soft landing scenario was still possible. These data points also supported the expectation that the Federal Reserve will begin cutting interest rates at its next policy meeting.
“Investors have been looking for additional reasons to continue the road to recovery,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. “With the recent, better-than-expected economic and employment data, now investors are picking up the pace.”
