Dow Jones futures fell modestly early Friday, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. Alibaba, Dell Technologies, Affirm Holdings and Iren reported overnight, with the Fed's favorite inflation report on tap.
The stock market rally continued its advance with modest but significant gains Thursday. The S&P 500 hit a fresh high while the Dow Jones set a record close. Nvidia edged lower following its long-awaited earnings. But AI-related stocks and other growth plays had a strong session.
Rubrik, MercadoLibre, Micron Technology, Cameco, Vertiv, Cadence Design Systems and GE Vernova all flashed similar buy signals.
GE Vernova stock and Nvidia are on Leaderboard, with Micron stock and Veritv on the Leaderboard watchlist. Cameco stock and GE Vernova are on SwingTrader. Iren stock, Affirm, Cadence Design and Cameco are on the IBD 50. Nvidia stock, Cameco are on the IBD Big Cap 20. Cameco was Thursday's IBD Stock Of The Day.
The video embedded in this article reviews Thursday's market action and analyzes Cameco, Rubrik and Micron stock.
Dow Jones Futures Today
Dow Jones futures fell 0.3% vs. fair value. S&P 500 futures slipped 0.3%. Nasdaq 100 futures declined 0.6%.
At 8:30 a.m. ET, investors will get the core PCE price index for July. The Fed's favorite inflation gauge is expected to show a year-over-year uptick. But it would probably take a lot for the Federal Reserve to not cut rates at the Sept. 17 meeting following Fed chief Jerome Powell's dovish comments last Friday.
Remember that overnight action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn't necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular stock market session.
Key Earnings
Buy now, pay later specialist Affirm, server-and-storage play Dell, bitcoin miner-turned-AI data center play Iren reported late, along with custom AI chipmaker Marvell Technology, software maker Autodesk and beauty products retailer Ulta Beauty.
Chinese e-commerce and cloud giant Alibaba reported early Friday.
Autodesk stock, Affirm and Iren were big winners before the open, with ADSK signaling possible entries. Affirm stock had closed just above a de facto handle entry to a six-month base. Alibaba and Ulta Beauty rose modesty, with BABA stock moving toward early entries.
Marvell stock dived while Dell fell.
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Stock Market Rally
The stock market rally kept pushing higher, led by AI and software names even with Nvidia edging lower.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.2% in Thursday's stock market trading. The S&P 500 index rose 0.3%. The Nasdaq composite advanced 0.5%. The small-cap Russell 2000 was up 0.2% after leading the market in the prior two sessions.
Nvidia stock fell 0.8% to 180.12, holding the 21-day line and coming off lows, continuing a few weeks of tight action near highs. The AI chip giant beat earnings views, though data center sales just missed. Nvidia raised guidance only slightly, but didn't include any China chip sales revenue.
Still, a number of AI plays did well, as fears about rotation out of the sector waned.
Meanwhile, software is making a comeback, with Snowflake and CrowdStrike making big earnings moves while MongoDB extended Wednesday's big gap-up.
While tech growth names led Thursday, a broad array of sectors are acting well.
U.S. crude oil prices rose 0.7% to $64.60 a barrel.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell three basis points to 4.21%, back near four-month lows.
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ETFs
Among growth ETFs, the Innovator IBD 50 ETF popped 1.65%. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF gained 1.5%, with Rubrik stock in the ETF. The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF advanced 0.4%, with Nvidia stock the top holding. Cadence Design stock is in both IGV and SMH.
ARK Innovation ETF climbed 0.7% and ARK Genomics ETF was up 0.2%.
SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF gained 0.7%. U.S. Global Jets ETF ascended 0.7%. The Energy Select SPDR ETF finished 0.8% higher. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund stepped down 0.4%.
The Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund rose 0.2%. The Financial Select SPDR ETF edged up 0.1%.
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Stocks Flashing Buy Signals
Rubrik, MercadoLibre, Micron, Cameco, Vertiv, Cadence Design and GE Vernova stock all rebounded from or reclaimed key moving averages and broke downtrends, offering early entries.
Cadence Design stock and GEV rebounded from their 21-day lines while Rubrik, MercadoLibre, Micron, Cameco and Vertiv stock bounced from the 50-day.
Micron, Cameco, Vertiv, GE Vernova and Cadence Design are all AI or AI-adjacent plays. Rubrik rallied as cybersecurity peer CrowdStrike reversed higher on earnings.
What To Do Now
The stock market rally is looking strong. While the major indexes didn't surge on Nvidia earnings after last Friday's big Powell rally, a large number of leaders flashed buy signals. Plenty of others, including Nvidia, held up well.
Investors should be heavily invested, either looking to increase exposure or to make new or add-on buys while cutting some laggards.
Thursday was a day to have watchlists ready. A bunch of names were actionable. You want to spot them early, already with an idea of which ones are your top priorities.
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Please follow Ed Carson on Threads at @edcarson1971 and X/Twitter at @IBD_ECarson for stock market updates and more.
