US stock futures were subdued on Friday as investors weighed a slew of corporate earnings and new growth data from China. Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) quarterly revenue beat estimates, highlighting the streaming giant’s effort to prioritize profits over subscriber additions. Elsewhere, gold hits an all-time high and Bitcoin rises amid strong safe-haven demand.
- Futures are conservative
US stock futures hovered around the flat line on Friday, after a mixed day on Wall Street in the previous session.
By 03:31 ET (07:31 GMT), the Dow was down 30 points, or 0.1%, the S&P 500 had added 4 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq 100 was up by 33 points or 0.2%.
Healthcare stocks were some of the worst performers on Thursday, with Elevance Health in particular falling after the group formerly known as Anthem cut its full-year earnings outlook. Molina Healthcare (NYSE:MOH) and Centene (NYSE:CNC) Corp also slipped.
Meanwhile, chipmakers such as Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) rose, boosted by positive results from peer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. But gains were tempered by weakness in freight carrier CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) and athletics company Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU).
By the end of the session, the benchmark S&P 500 had edged lower, erasing earlier gains, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up slightly and the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average was up 161 points, or 0.4 percent.
- Netflix records its most profitable quarter ever
Netflix reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue, in a sign of the streaming giant’s push to emphasize profits over rapid subscriber growth.
The company added 5.07 million subscribers during its third quarter compared with 8.76 million net new subscribers in the year-ago period, reflecting the fading impact of a crackdown on customer-to-customer password sharing that began in 2023. Still and thus, the number beat Wall Street estimates, helping stocks climb higher in extended trading hours.
More than half of new subscribers in markets where Netflix’s ad-supported tier is offered have chosen the option, signaling some resilience in this critical part of the business. That trend helped offset a slew of new releases that Netflix said were “more patchy than normal.”
Earnings per share in the quarter came in at $5.40 and revenue rose to $9.83 billion, both above forecasts.
Net profit is forecast to fall in the current quarter, although Netflix plans to push through price hikes in Italy and Spain to help boost revenue. It has also recently raised prices in other parts of the world.
- China’s economy grows by 4.6% in the third quarter
China’s economy expanded at a slower pace in the third quarter, official data showed on Friday, highlighting the challenge facing Beijing as it tries to revive faltering activity in the country.
China’s gross domestic product rose 4.6 percent year-on-year in the July-September period, in line with expectations, but slowing from 4.7 percent in the previous quarter. It was the lowest reading in 18 months and below the government’s full-year target of 5%.
Beijing has announced a series of stimulus measures over the past three weeks, marking China’s most concentrated efforts to shore up sluggish economic growth. The ongoing deflationary trend, weak private spending and the prolonged collapse of the housing market have been the biggest drags on the world’s second largest economy.
Shares in China fell after the data was released on Friday, but erased those losses later in the session after the People’s Bank of China launched new lending programs aimed at boosting share buybacks and other equity markets.
- Gold hits record high
Gold prices hit a record high in Asian trade on Friday, extending a multi-year rally fueled by steady safe-haven demand.
The contested US presidential election, broader economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions lent support to the yellow metal.
Spot gold rose 0.4% to $2,706 an ounce, while gold futures for December delivery rose 0.5% to $2,720.15 an ounce.
The price of Bitcoin, which is seen by some investors as a hedge similar to gold, also gained on Friday.
- Oil is rising
Oil prices edged higher on Friday but remained on track for their biggest weekly loss in more than a month on concerns over demand.
By 03:32 Greek time, Brent was up 0.3% at $74.66 a barrel, while U.S. crude futures (WTI) were trading 0.3% higher at $70.89 a barrel.
Both benchmarks were higher on Thursday for the first time in five sessions after data showed U.S. official inventories fell last week, but are still down about 6 percent this week, their biggest weekly decline since Sept. 2. .
Both OPEC and the International Energy Agency cut their forecasts for global oil demand earlier this week, largely due to concerns about economic weakness in top oil importer China.
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Reference;
Kanowsky, S. (2024) Netflix earnings, China’s Q3 growth, gold’s new record – what’s moving markets By Investing.com, Investing.com. Investing.com. Available at: https://www.investing.com/news/economy/netflix-earnings-chinas-q3-growth-golds-new-record–whats-moving-markets-3670225 (Accessed: 18 October 2024).
