By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - U.S. futures held steady in early APAC deals on Friday, following a mixed close amid volatile trade in the previous session as market participants proved optimistic on tech stocks, after the Federal Reserve's minutes signaled bond tapering by year-end.
During the regular session on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 66.59 points or 0.19% to 34894.11, the S&P 500 added 5.53 points or 0.13% to 4405.79 while the NASDAQ Composite gained 15.87 points or 0.11% to 14541.79. All three major benchmarks are on track to close the week lower with the Dow and S&P set to record their worst weekly performances in two months.
Among stocks, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) closed 3.98% higher in regular trade, after reporting quarterly results that beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines. Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) also lifted 3.84% after reporting fiscal fourth quarter results that topped Wall Street estimates, underpinned by strong order growth amid growing demand for 5G, digital transformation cloud security. Meantime, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) fell 0.1% after the Federal Trade Commission refiled its antitrust case against the social media company.
In local data, the labor market continued to show improvement as jobless claims fell for the fourth consecutive period and hitting a new pandemic-era low of 348K, while minutes from the Fed's July meeting showed most committee members believed the economy could be strong enough to meet the central bank's threshold to begin tapering its US$120 billion monthly bond purchases.