NEW YORK, April 24, 2026, 04:42 EDT
Stock-index futures in the U.S. showed a mixed picture before the opening bell Friday. Nasdaq futures jumped, buoyed by Intel, while Dow futures edged lower as oil prices climbed amid deadlocked U.S.-Iran peace talks. At 03:21 ET, Dow futures lost 58 points. S&P 500 futures gained 10, and Nasdaq 100 futures surged 172 points, according to Investing.com.
This split is in focus with Wall Street trying to keep an earnings-fueled rally alive, even as rising energy prices drag inflation back into the spotlight. On Thursday, the Dow slipped 0.36%, the S&P 500 shed 0.41%, and the Nasdaq tumbled 0.89%. Out of 123 S&P 500 firms that had reported by Thursday morning, 82.1% beat analyst forecasts, LSEG’s Tajinder Dhillon said.
Oil remains the wild card here. Brent crude pushed past $105 a barrel, with U.S. crude not far behind at $96, as the Strait of Hormuz stayed clogged by disruptions. Major central banks, the Federal Reserve among them, are up for policy meetings next week. “A ceasefire is a funny term,” said Vishnu Varathan, Mizuho’s head of macro strategy for APAC, pointing to the tension and ongoing blockade. Reuters
Thursday was a bruiser for software stocks. IBM and ServiceNow’s results sent the sector tumbling, with the S&P 500 software and services index down 5.09%—the hardest hit since Jan. 29. On the flip side, Texas Instruments surged 19.43% after surprising with a stronger outlook, notching its biggest gain since October 2000.
Intel grabbed the spotlight before the bell. The chipmaker put out a second-quarter revenue forecast of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion, beating the $13.07 billion analysts had called for, according to LSEG data. Shares jumped 19% in after-hours action. “Not just our wishful thinking,” Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan told analysts about a rebound in CPU demand for servers. Reuters
The Intel news throws the chip sector’s split into sharper relief. According to Reuters, Intel’s data-center and AI divisions topped revenue forecasts, yet the competitive field is crowded—Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and Arm are all hunting for the same CPU turf. That turns Friday into more of a referendum on AI hardware’s ability to counteract a weaker tone in software than a sweeping vote for tech.
Another round of earnings hits before the bell. Procter & Gamble, Charter Communications, HCA, Norfolk Southern, and SLB line up to post results this Friday, delivering a cross-section of updates spanning consumer staples, media, hospitals, rail freight, and oilfield services.
Not much on the U.S. data docket, though there is the University of Michigan’s final April consumer sentiment figure on tap for 10 a.m. ET. That preliminary print? Came in at 47.6—down from March’s 53.3. Year-ahead inflation expectations ticked up, hitting 4.8% from 3.8%. Survey director Joanne Hsu pointed to softer sentiment since the Iran conflict began, and ongoing concerns about prices.
Friday’s slate is missing a couple of data points some traders were likely looking for. The Census Bureau pushed the March new residential sales release to May 5. March’s advance durable goods figures are still set to come out April 29 at 8:30 a.m. EDT.
Friday’s setup is straightforward: any big oil news could easily overshadow the Intel move. Another Hormuz scare or a spike in gas prices would squeeze consumer stocks again and keep yields up. But if the Michigan number comes in strong, that might give cyclicals a boost—even as it hands the Fed another excuse to hold off on cutting rates.
Leadership’s looking thin at the moment. Jay Hatfield, CEO and CIO at Infrastructure Capital Advisors, likened Thursday’s action to “playing musical chairs” between earnings and war news—an apt snapshot for a premarket where a single chipmaker seems to be carrying the load. Reuters
