US Stocks Likely To Open On A Mixed Note: Intel, Philips 66, Centene, Charter Earnings In Focus

U.S. stock futures swung between gains and losses on Friday after ending on a mixed note on Thursday. Futures of major benchmark indices were mixed.

In the escalating feud between the two, President Donald Trump visited the Federal Reserve and met Chairman Jerome Powell, having a public disagreement over the escalating price for renovation work at the Federal Reserve’s headquarters.

This occurred just a few days ahead of the Fed’s decision on interest rates on July 30. Trump has been increasing pressure on Powell to decrease interest rates, while also backing away from his earlier talk of dismissing Powell before his term ends next May.

Meanwhile, the administration’s Aug. 1 deadline on tariff negotiations also falls on Thursday next week as investors look out for more trade deals.

The 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.42% and the two-year bond was at 3.93%. The CME Group's FedWatch tool’s projections show markets pricing a 97.4% likelihood of the Federal Reserve keeping the current interest rates unchanged in its July meeting.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, were higher in premarket on Friday. The SPY was up 0.13% at $635.26, while the QQQ advanced 0.048% to $565.28, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Cues From Last Session:

Energy and information technology stocks bucked the overall market trend on Thursday, closing the session higher, while most sectors on the S&P 500 closed on a negative note, with health care, materials, and consumer discretionary stocks recording the biggest losses. U.S. stocks settled mixed.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) reported better-than-expected second-quarter financial results and increased its investment in capital expenditures in 2025.

Conversely, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) reported weaker-than-expected second-quarter financial results after the market closed Wednesday.

On the economic data front, the S&P Global manufacturing PMI declined to 49.5 in July, down from market estimates of 52.6, while U.S. initial jobless claims declined by 4,000 from the previous week to 217,000 in the third week of July, compared to market estimates of 227,000.

Insights From Analysts:

Analysis by Adam Turnquist, the chief technical strategist at LPL Financial, highlighted that the advance-decline line reached new highs before the S&P 500, creating a bullish divergence that supported the case for a sustainable rally.

This followed a recovery from the April 8 low, showing broad participation, with most stocks rebounding sharply from oversold conditions, Turnquist explained.

A rising advance-decline line is indicative of positive market breadth as the number of advancing stocks is outpacing the number of declining stocks. The line is calculated by taking the difference between the number of advancing and declining stocks on the index for a given trading day and adding that difference to the prior day's value.

However, Turnquist noted that “over the past month, participation in the S&P 500's push to new highs narrowed. For example, without the help from a handful of Magnificent Seven names, the S&P 500 would only be up around 0.5% month-to-date, far below the index's 1.7% total return.”

This has resulted in the advance-decline line failing to set a new high earlier this month, creating a short-term divergence between price and breadth.

“Encouragingly, this gap is now closed as participation recently expanded beyond large-cap and/or tech stocks. Yesterday's (Wednesday’s) new high in the A/D line reinforces the health of the bull market, signaling a broader rally with receding concentration risk,” he added.

Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates explained that “we are truly in a special environment and an economic renaissance for the U.S.”

According to him, as Asia and much of Europe are in the midst of a demographic collapse, the U.S. is better positioned for household formation and better assimilates immigrants.

“Furthermore, the U.S. is food and energy independent, plus is benefiting from surging exports as well as onshoring. This is why the U.S. dollar suddenly got its ‘mojo’ back, since it is obvious that the tariffs are going to help the U.S. to better manage its budget deficit,” he said.

He concluded by noting that “Hopefully, all the tariffs will be finalized on August 1st, the Fed signals that rate cuts will be forthcoming and virtually all economic uncertainty will end. As estimates for GDP growth steadily rise, I expect both business and consumer confidence will soar.”

See Also: How to Trade Futures

Upcoming Economic Data

Here’s what investors will keep an eye on Friday:

• June durable-goods orders data will be announced by 8:30 a.m. ET.

Stocks In Focus:

• Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) dropped 4.99% after reporting a loss for the second quarter, while sales topped estimates. CEO Lip-Bu Tan shared a memo with employees saying that the company will reduce its workforce to 75,000 employees by the end of the year through layoffs and attrition.
• Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) was up 0.72% as analysts expect it to report earnings of $1.69 per share on revenue of $32.53 billion before the opening bell.
• Centene Corp. (NYSE:CNC) rose 1.46% as it is expected to report earnings before the opening bell. Analysts estimate earnings of $1.26 per share on revenue of $44.48 billion.
• Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) advanced 1.36% as analysts expect it to report earnings of $9.78 per share on revenue of $13.76 billion before the opening bell.
• NextCure Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTC) jumped 24.33% after the company presented new preclinical data for NC605, a potential treatment for brittle bone disease.
• Garden Stage Ltd. (NASDAQ:GSIW) zoomed 33.94% after the company announced a $4.2 million registered direct offering of 38.4 million ordinary shares and pre-funded warrants at $0.11 per share.
• Linkhome Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LHAI) gained 54.42% after listing on July 24 as it upsized its initial public offering of $6 million. Consisting of 1,500,000 shares of common stock, the offering was priced at $4 per share. Before deducting underwriting discounts and offering expenses, the total gross proceeds resulted in $6 million.
• Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE:SCHW) was 1.04% higher after authorizing a $20 billion stock repurchase program.
• Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) was up 3.09% after the Federal Communications Commission approved its merger with Skydance Media.

Commodities, Gold, And Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil futures were trading higher in the early New York session by 0.42% to hover around $66.31 per barrel.

Gold Spot US Dollar fell 0.73% to hover around $3,344.22 per ounce. Its last record high stood at $3,500.33 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was higher by 0.33% at the 97.7020 level.

Asian markets mostly declined on Friday, except South Korea's Kospi index. Japan's Nikkei 225, Hong Kong's Hang Seng, China’s CSI 300, India's S&P BSE Sensex, and Australia's ASX 200 indices rose. European markets were mostly lower in early trade.

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