(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were mostly higher ahead of the bell on Friday after Donald Trump said that the US and Israel's war with Iran "should be ending pretty soon" and that the conflict was "going along swimmingly".
As of 1245 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.36%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.23% and 0.18% firmer, respectively.
The Dow closed 115 points higher on Thursday, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit new records for the second straight day despite ongoing uncertainty in the Middle East.
Donald Trump said late on Thursday that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon had agreed to a ceasefire following talks in Washington, with the temporary truce set to begin at 2200 BST and added that the next round of in‑person negotiations could take place "probably, maybe, next weekend".
These comments followed Trump's remarks earlier in the week that the Iran war was "very close to over" and that Tehran wanted to "make a deal very badly". Hopes of a broader peace agreement have helped lift equities in recent days, with all three major indices on track to finish the week higher.
Trade Nation's David Morrison said: "All the US stock indices have experienced an extraordinary snap-back rally off lows hit at the end of March. In the case of the S&P 500, this has seen the index jump close to 12% in little more than a fortnight. The sharpness of the move has caught many investors offside, particularly those who sold during the first few weeks of the war, either to flatten their exposure or go net short. Now these investors are having to pay up to reestablish their existing positions, or cover their shorts and suffer painful losses.
"There can be little doubt that investors and traders alike are responding to a 'fear of missing out' as the indices storm past old records highs. After all, this 'buy the dip' strategy, if you can call it that, has proved consistently profitable since October 2022. All sell-offs have been remarkably short-lived, as market participants have looked past problematic issues and set their eyes on the dreamy uplands of US exceptionalism. And they've been right to do so, so far. Because the corporations whose stock prices make up the indices continue to do extraordinarily well."
In the corporate space, streaming giant Netflix posted first‑quarter revenues overnight that came in just ahead of expectations as it also announced a major governance change, with co-founder and former CEO Reed Hastings set to step down from the board. Netflix said revenues had risen 16% year‑on‑year to $12.25bn in Q1, ahead of the $12.18bn expected by analysts, while net income jumped to $5.28bn, nearly double the $2.89bn reported a year earlier, helped by stronger‑than‑expected operating income and a $2.8bn termination fee from its collapsed Warner Bros Discovery deal.
No major data points were scheduled for release on Friday.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com