U.S. stocks were mixed in early Friday trading, while the dollar fell to a one-month low against its global peers while Treasury yields steadied, as markets digested a series of comments from President Donald Trump that appeared to reflect a softening on his views on universal tariffs.
Updated at 12:27 PM AM EST
More Meta
Meta shares have reversed earlier declines and were last marked 1.65% higher at $646.77 each after unveiling plans to introduce adds to its Threads micro-blogging platform, which boasts around 300 million active users.
Stocks are turning modestly lower in late-morning trading following a weaker-than-expected reading for January consumer confidence that also included steady, but elevated, level of inflation expectation ahead of next week's Federal Reserve rate decision.
The University of Michigan's benchmark sentiment index slipped to 71.1 points, well shy of the Street's 73.2 point estimate, while its reading of year-ahead inflation held at a March 2024 high of 3.3%
'The Fed still has credibility as long-term inflation expectations remain well anchored. Inflation data make it unlikely that the Fed will cut rates at the March meeting and the probability of a cut in May is a coin flip," said Jeffery Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial.
The S&P 500 was last marked 3 points lower, or 0.04% on the session while the Nasdaq slipped 15 points and the Dow fell 75 points.
Updated at 9:43 AM EST
More records
The S&P 500 was marked 5 points, or 0.08% higher in the opening minutes of trading, and printed a fresh intra-peak of 6,124.09 points.
The Nasdaq was marked 18 points, or 0.09% higher while the Dow edged 46 points lower from last night's close .
Updated at 9:21 AM EST
Mega Meta spending
Meta Platforms (META) shares moved lower in active early trading after CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social media group would likely spend far more than expected on capital projects next year.
Zuckerberg said in early Friday Facebook post that Meta's capex will likely reach between $60 billion and $65 billion this year, well ahead of the Street' consensus forecast of around $51 billion.
"I expect Meta AI will be the leading assistant serving more than 1 billion people, Llama 4 will become the leading state of the art model," Zuckerberg said. "This is a massive effort, and over the coming years it will drive our core products and business, unlock historic innovation, and extend American technology leadership."
Meta Platforms shares were marked 0.90% lower in premarket trading to indicate an opening bell price of $630.00 each.
Source: Facebook
Stock Market Today
Stocks closed at a fresh all-time high on Thursday, with the S&P 500 rising 0.73% with gains for all of the benchmark's eleven separate sectors following Trump's address to the World Economic Forum in Davos during which he reiterated his 'America first' economic policies.
The President also said he would call on leaders of the OPEC cartel to lower global oil prices, although he offered little detail in terms of how he might achieve that, while making similarly vague claims of "demanding" lower interest rates from the Federal Reserve.
His remarks in an interview later with Fox News, however, had more impact as he said he would "rather not" impose tariffs on China-made goods and allowed for the possibility of a trade deal following a "friendly' conversation with President Xi Jinping.
President Trump's first week in office has produced a flurry of executive orders and contradictory comments on tariffs. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Global stocks were buoyed by the remarks, with the regional MSCI ex-Japan index rising 0.79% into the close of trading and Europe's Stoxx 600 extending its recent record high and on pace for a fifth consecutive weekly gain.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, fell 0.5% to a one-month low of 107.528 as investors looked to riskier assets amid the broader improvement in sentiment.
That's yet to fully materialize in U.S. stocks, however, as futures suggest a modestly lower open on Wall Street at the start of trading, with the S&P 500 called 9 points lower and the Dow Jones Industrial Average priced for a 50 point pullback from last night's close.
The tech-focused Nasdaq is called 45 points lower with Nvidia (NVDA) down 0.21% but most of the larger megacap tech names edging modestly higher.
Boeing (BA) shares were active in early trading, falling 1.7% after the planemaker pre-announced its fourth quarter earnings and forecast a lager-than-expected loss of $5.46 per share tied to costs from its crippling machinists' strike. That will likely lead to a sixth consecutive year of losses that will combine to around $36 billion.
Novo Nordisk shares, meanwhile, were up 10.6% after the Denmark-based drugmaker posted early-stage results from the trial of its amycretin obesity treatment that showed a 22% weight loss for patients over a 9 month period.
In the bond market, benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields were little-changed at 4.634% while 2-year notes were trading at 4.268% heading into the start of the New York session.
Global oil prices, however, edged higher as the dollar extended its declines, with Brent crude contracts for March delivery rising 47 cents to $78.77 per barrel and WTI contracts for the same month up 42 cents to $75.04 per barrel.
Elsewhere, the Bank of Japan lifted its benchmark lending rate to 0.5%, the highest levels since 2008, following a two-day policy meeting in Tokyo, but made no changes to its near-term guidance.
"We don't have any preset idea. We'll make a decision at each policy meeting by looking at economic and price developments as well as risks," said Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda.
The yen rose by around 0.75% to 155.91 against the U.S. dollar following the decision, while stocks on the Nikkei 225 ended the session 0.07% lower.
