NEW YORK, Oct 19 — Nasdaq futures held steady today after streaming major Netflix posted a reversal in customer losses but concerns over rising interest rates weighed on the overall mood and looked set to stall a recent rally on Wall Street.
The three major US stock indexes have notched two straight session of gains on the back of solid quarterly results from big US banks that kicked off the reporting season on a bright note.
Netflix jumped 12 per cent in premarket trading after it attracted 2.4 million new subscribers worldwide in the third quarter, more than double the consensus forecast, and guided for 4.5 million additions by year end.
“Netflix is the latest tonic for battered bulls,” said Elsa Lignos, global head of FX Strategy at RBC Capital Markets.
“In recent days, two themes of European energy relief coupled with ‘better-than-expected’ Q3 earnings relief have taken hold, though it is still too early to judge and the bulk of big earnings releases don’t come until next week.”
Netflix’s subscriber turnaround also lifted stocks of rival streaming companies. Warner Bros Discovery, Walt Disney and Roku gained between 0.4 per cent and 3.12 per cent.
Mega-cap growth stocks like Tesla Inc, Amazon.com and Alphabet Inc added between 0.3 per cent and 0.6 per cent.
Analysts have cut their third-quarter earnings expectations for S&P 500 companies to just 2.8 per cent, from an 11.1 per cent increase forecast at the start of July, according to Refinitiv data.
At 5.00am ET, Dow e-minis were down 39 points, or 0.13 per cent, S&P 500 e-minis were down 1.25 points, or 0.10 per cent, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 12.25 points, or 0.15 per cent. — Reuters
