Futures muted after Thursday’s fall as markets await Fed, tariff cues

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Payments firm Block falls as Q4 profit misses estimates

Celsius surges on deal to buy wellness drinks brand Alani

Futures up: Dow 0.1%, S&P 500 0.01%, Nasdaq 0.11%

(Updates with analyst comment)

By Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta

U.S. stock index futures took a pause on Friday after declining in the previous session when a drop in heavyweight retailer Walmart, coupled with ongoing tariff jitters and an uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s interest rate outlook, triggered risk aversion.

Walmart edged 0.3% higher in premarket trading after dropping more than 6% on Thursday, its biggest single-day decline in more than a year, on a downbeat forecast. The retail giant’s plunge led to declines in all three indexes.

The S&P 500 is set for a flat weekly finish, receding somewhat after hitting all-time highs twice this week, while the Dow and the Nasdaq are on pace for mild weekly declines.

“Despite U.S. President (Donald) Trump adopting a more relaxed approach this week on the issue of tariffs, market participants remain concerned about what lies ahead,” Achilleas Georgolopoulos, senior market analyst at forex broker XM, wrote in a note.

Earlier this week, Trump said he will announce fresh tariffs over the next month or sooner, adding lumber and forest products to previously announced plans to impose duties on imported cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.

Since returning to office four weeks ago, Trump has imposed an additional 10% tariff on all imports from China. He also announced, and then delayed for a month 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and non-energy imports from Canada.

Last week, he unveiled plans to slap reciprocal tariffs on all countries that have tariffs on U.S. goods

On Friday, preliminary February economic activity surveys published by S&P Global will be released at 9:45 a.m. ET, while the final reading of consumer sentiment calculated by the University of Michigan is due at 10 a.m. ET.

The Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) reading, the Fed’s preferred gauge for inflation, would be on the radar next week after consumer and producer prices reading earlier this month painted a mixed picture.

Traders currently see at least one 25-basis-point interest rate cut by the Fed this year, with a 60% chance of an additional cut, according to LSEG data.

On Thursday, several Fed officials signaled they still feel that cooling U.S. inflation will in time allow the U.S. central bank to deliver further interest rate cuts.

One official said that current conditions call for holding rates steady, and gave no indication of when, or whether, she felt cuts would be needed. Comments from Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson are due later in the day.

At 6:58 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 46 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 0.5 points, or 0.01%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 24.25 points, or 0.11%.

Block slid 8.5% after the payment firm’s fourth-quarter profit fell short of estimates.

Celsius Holdings jumped 32.6% after the energy drink maker said it would buy health and wellness drinks brand Alani Nutrition in a $1.8 billion deal through a combination of cash and stock.

Akamai Technologies dropped 9.7% as the cybersecurity company forecast annual 2025 revenue below estimates.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)