Stock futures were falling Friday as investors weighed up strong quarterly earnings from Google owner Alphabet as well as trade tensions between China and the U.S.
Futures tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 31 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.3%, and contracts tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 added 0.3%.
The three blue-chip indexes have rallied this week, gaining for four straight days, buoyed by solid earnings reports that have helped ease fears about President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Alphabet added to that narrative late Thursday, as the search-engine provider beat Wall Street’s profit and revenue targets and stood by its capital expenditures guidance, which it forecasts at $75 billion for 2025. Its shares climbed 4.8% after the closing bell.
“Alphabet’s first-quarter earnings beat should further boost sentiment today,” Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Derren Nathan said, adding that the unchanged capital spending guidance “should provide a further tailwind” for artificial intelligence stocks as well as the broader tech sector.
But investors were also still struggling to make sense of trade tensions Friday. Chinese officials said once again on Friday that Beijing and Washington still weren’t negotiating on tariffs, pouring cold water on the market’s hopes that the two sides could soon reach a trade deal.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note slipped 2 basis points to 4.304% Friday, and the U.S. Dollar Index–a gauge of the greenback’s strength against six other currencies–was up 0.2%.
