U.S. stock futures edged higher Friday morning as Wall Street looked to shake off a rough session that saw markets rattled by surging oil prices and renewed inflation fears. The modest overnight gains suggested investors were ready to at least attempt a rebound after Brent crude briefly climbed above $100 per barrel on Thursday, sparking a broad sell-off. By early Friday, both Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude had pulled back, settling around $96.88 and $88.96 respectively, giving traders some breathing room.
Treasury yields also retreated from troubling heights touched the day before. The benchmark 10-year note yield dipped one basis point to 4.693% after briefly climbing above 4.7% on Thursday — its highest level since mid-January 2025, just before President Donald Trump began his second term. That spike had stoked concerns that persistent energy costs could keep inflation sticky and delay any further interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.
Corporate earnings offered some bright spots for investors looking for good news. Intel jumped 3.6% in premarket trading after posting better-than-expected second-quarter results and issuing third-quarter guidance that topped Wall Street estimates, helped by growing demand tied to the artificial intelligence boom. Oracle added nearly 3% a day after securing a massive ten-year software contract with the Pentagon worth up to $7 billion. German software giant SAP also saw its shares rise after reporting a 27% surge in its cloud order backlog.
Overseas, markets were more mixed. European bourses opened broadly but slightly higher, with Germany’s DAX rising 0.4% while London’s FTSE 100 stayed flat. Asia-Pacific markets had a tougher session overnight, led lower by South Korea’s Kospi which plunged over 5.7%. Japan’s Nikkei fell 2.7%. Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions continued to simmer in the background, with Trump telling Axios he was close to deciding whether to launch what he called a “massive attack” on Iran — potentially larger than anything seen so far — saying Tehran has not yet received enough pain
