Dow Jones futures rose slightly early Friday, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures, amid President Donald Trump's latest comment on Chinese tariffs.
The stock market rally had a powerful Thursday morning, as President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with the U.K. But stocks pared gains significantly on a report that Trump is pushing for a tax hike on the very wealthy.
Among stocks flashing buy signals: Robinhood Markets, MercadoLibre, Axon Enterprise, Rubrik, GE Aerospace, Paycom Software.
After the close, Affirm, Lyft, Cloudflare, Toast, Insulet, Expedia and Coinbase Global were notable earnings reports.
Rubrik stock is on IBD Leaderboard, with Robinhood stock on the Leaderboard watchlist. Axon, Robinhood, Rubrik, MercadoLibre and Cloudflare stock are on the IBD 50. Axon stock and MercadoLibre are on the IBD Big Cap 20. MercadoLibre stock is on IBD Sector Leaders.
Dow Jones Futures Today
Dow Jones futures were up 0.2% vs. fair value. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.4%.
Futures briefly turned mixed after President Trump posted "80% Tariff on China seems right." That would be a drop from the current 145%. However, multiple reports suggested the U.S. might cut the tariff to 50% or so, which would be about the outer limit to have substantial trade.
Trump said the tariff decision would be up to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who will lead high-level U.S.-China talks in Geneva this weekend. So the president's statement could be pre-talks bravado.
China exports to the U.S. plunged 21% in April vs. a year earlier, according to official data Friday, with that drop-off hitting U.S. ports now. But exports swelled 8.1% in dollar-denominated terms, as Beijing shifted trade to Southeast Asia, Latin America, Europe and Africa.
The 10-year Treasury yield edged up to 4.38%.
Crude oil futures jumped 2%.
Remember that overnight action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn't necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular stock market session.
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Key Earnings
Insulet, Lyft, Cloudflare, Toast and Pinterest were earnings winners in premarket trade. Insulet, Lyft, Toast and Cloudflare might be actionable at Friday's open.
Coinbase stock, Affirm Holdings and Expedia were earnings losers in active overnight trade.
Stock Market Rally
The stock market rally reacted bullishly to Trump's U.K. trade deal, though the accord is tentative and would leave U.S. tariffs far higher than before the April 2 "Liberation Day."
But stocks slashed gains into the close on a Bloomberg report that Trump is urging GOP lawmakers to hike taxes on Americans making $2.5 million or more to help pay for other tax cuts.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% in Thursday's stock market trading. The S&P 500 index climbed 0.6%. The Nasdaq composite gained 1.1%. The small-cap Russell 2000 jumped 1.85%.
The Dow Jones and Russell 2000 did close above their 50-day lines. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq cleared short-term highs intraday, with the latter moving above 18,000, but they couldn't hold those levels.
The key indexes are close to their 200-day moving averages, a major resistance level. For the week, the indexes are little changed so far.
Meanwhile, leading stocks flexed Thursday, with many more breaking out or flashing buy signals, though several faded with the market. Previous breakouts continued to work.
U.S. crude oil prices jumped 3.2% to $59.91 a barrel.
The 10-year Treasury yield leaped 10 basis points to 4.37%.
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ETFs
Among growth ETFs, the Innovator IBD 50 ETF rose 1.2%. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF gained 1.65%. The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF climbed 0.9%.
ARK Innovation ETF popped 3.8% and ARK Genomics ETF rallied 4.4%. Coinbase stock is the No. 2 holding across ARK Invest's ETFs. Cathie Wood's ARK also owns a big Robinhood stock stake.
SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF was up 0.8%. The Energy Select SPDR ETF rose 1.3% and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund sank 0.9%. The Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund increased 1.4%. The Financial Select SPDR ETF added 0.8%.
Stocks In Buy Areas
MercadoLibre stock and Paycom gapped up on earnings and are still actionable. Rubrik and GE Aerospace cleared buy points as well Thursday.
Robinhood surged 8.2%, moving past a buy point on bitcoin topping $100,000. Axon raced 14%, sprinting past an early entry on earnings. Both are extended now.
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What To Do Now
The stock market rally is showing renewed strength after what now appears to have been a constructive pause. The major indexes still need to clear the 200-day line, but investors could have taken advantage of buying opportunities.
Robinhood stock and Axon Enterprise quickly becoming extended shows the importance of having your watchlists prepared and staying engaged.
Continue to gradually add exposure. Investors should be modestly or even significantly invested by now.
While there have been some big earnings winners, Fortinet and Argenx were among the latest leading stocks to gap down after results.
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Please follow Ed Carson on Threads at @edcarson1971 and X/Twitter at @IBD_ECarson for stock market updates and more.
