US pre-open: Stocks seen up ahead of inflation reading; Apple gains

(Sharecast News) - US futures pointed to a firmer open on Wall Street on Friday as investors eyed the latest inflation reading. At 1120 GMT, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.3%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were 0.4% and 0.8% higher, respectively.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "Later on, there's one more hurdle to get over this week as core PCE inflation data is released in the US. This metric is a big factor in informing the decision making of the Fed so a surprise in either direction could make markets increasingly febrile again."

The figures for December are due at 1330 GMT.

On the corporate front, Apple was up 3.7% in pre-market trade after better-than-expected first-quarter earnings.

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "With investors are highly tuned into how artificial intelligence spend will represent real revenue for big tech, Apple's results have provided a crunch of reassurance. Apple is more immune to the fretting over AI competition from China, given how it's approached the opportunities artificial intelligence presents. It hasn't spent the big bucks on building infrastructure, unlike its big tech peers, and instead has concentrated in infiltrating its hardware, notably iPhones with AI features.

"There was an overall dip in iPhone sales during the crucial golden quarter because the Apple Intelligence system wasn't available on phones in key markets. But in areas where they had been rolled out, sales were higher. With the features set to be integrated on the latest tranche of devices in Europe this Spring, it's given investors hope that it will lead to a big wave of upgrades.

"However, it remains to be seen just how enthused fans will be with the new features and whether there will be enough 'wow factor' to drive big sales, given such high expectations. The dollar strength is also starting to bite for Apple and the firm is still faces ongoing weakness in China."

Exxon Mobil and Chevron were also likely to be in focus after quarterly results.