Dow Futures 220 Pts Higher; Big Tech in Focus as Biden Revives Net Neutrality

By Peter Nurse   

Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening largely higher Friday, attempting to rebound from the previous session’s losses although weakness in Big Tech could weigh following a report that the Biden administration is to look to reinstate Obama-era rules on net neutrality.

At 7:15 AM ET (1115 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 220 points, or 0.7%, S&P 500 Futures traded 17 points, or 0.4%, higher, while Nasdaq 100 Futures was marginally lower.

The broad-based S&P 500 closed Thursday 0.9% lower, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 250 points, or 0.8%, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.7%. 

Axios, an American news website, reported Friday that President Joe Biden will push the Federal Communications Commission to reinstate rules on 'Net Neutrality' that had been scrapped by President Donald Trump. This would form part of an initiative aimed at enhancing competition in many sectors across the economy. Trump's reforms had been welcomed at the time by both content providers and broadband operators.

This comes as concerns grow about the impact of the Covid-19 virus, and particularly the delta strain, on global economic growth. For example, May GDP grew 0.8% in the U.K. on the month, a sharp slowdown from the 2.0% gain the previous month, which in itself was revised lower. 

San Francisco President Mary Daly warned on Friday in an interview with the Financial Times of the danger of assuming the pandemic was over, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated earlier this week that the delta variant was now the dominant coronavirus strain in the United States.

There was some good news on the subject, as Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), along with partner BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX), announced late Thursday that they plan to apply shortly for emergency use authorization for a booster shot to their Covid-19 vaccine, while also starting work on an updated version of their virus to tackle new variants.

Elsewhere, oil prices edged higher, boosted by the U.S. Energy Information Administration reporting Thursday a drop in the country's crude inventories of just under 7 million barrels. The official body also stated that fuel demand soared to 10 million barrels a day in the week before the July 4 national holiday.

Also of note Friday will be the release of the Baker Hughes total of working U.S. oil rigs as well as the CFTC crude oil net speculative positions. 

At 7:15 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 1.2% higher at $73.78 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 0.8% to $74.73.

Additionally, gold futures was flat at $1,800.10/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.2% higher at 1.1862.

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