US stock futures advanced on Friday, with Nasdaq 100 futures gaining about 145 points (0.4%) as renewed enthusiasm for artificial intelligence offset persistent concerns over crude oil above $100 a barrel and a 10-year Treasury yield hovering near 5.1%. S&P 500 and Dow futures each added roughly 0.3%, setting the stage for Wall Street to extend a winning week despite higher-for-longer rate risks and geopolitical uncertainty.
AI strength continues to dominate
Semiconductor and tech names led the premarket advance. AMD, Marvell, Cerebras, and Intel each rose about 2%, while Nvidia and Tesla edged higher. Technology and communication services have been the top-performing sectors in the S&P 500 this week, and the Nasdaq is on track for a weekly gain. Meta Platforms was little changed in premarket trading but is heading for a fifth consecutive weekly advance, its longest such streak since early 2023. The company's Muse assistant has rekindled interest in AI inference and CPU demand, and Meta sits less than 1% away from a $2 trillion market valuation.
Akamai's Anthropic deal fuels infrastructure trade
Akamai Technologies jumped about 21% after Anthropic committed to spend $11.6 billion over seven years on its cloud infrastructure. The agreement could expand by an additional $9 billion, and Anthropic received warrants tied to as much as 5% of Akamai's shares. The deal underscores a broader shift in AI spending beyond graphics processing units into CPUs, cloud networks, and distributed computing infrastructure, providing another catalyst for the AI trade.
Oil and yields remain a ceiling
Brent crude remains above $100 after Thursday's 3.4% jump to $106.60, while the 10-year Treasury yield is around 5.1%. US and Iranian negotiators are still exploring a phased agreement involving the Strait of Hormuz, but no settlement has been reached. Emily Bowersock Hill, CEO of Bowersock Capital Partners, told MarketWatch that sustained 10-year yields above 5% could compress equity multiples even if earnings remain solid, making the bond market a direct test for expensive technology stocks.
Trump-Xi summit extends truce but leaves disputes open
Thursday's White House summit produced a two-month extension of the US-China trade truce, pushing its expiry to January 10. Tariffs, rare-earth supplies, technology restrictions, and agricultural purchases remain unresolved. The outcome removes an immediate trade deadline without delivering a broader settlement, giving companies more time but limited additional certainty over technology and supply-chain rules.
Data and Fed speakers in focus
August durable-goods orders are due at 8:30 am ET, with the headline figure expected to fall 0.3% while core orders are forecast to rise 0.6%. Final September University of Michigan sentiment data follow at 10 am. Markets assign about a 71% probability to another quarter-point Fed hike in October. New York Fed President John Williams, Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid, and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack are all on Friday's calendar, keeping the rate debate active into the weekend.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
