U.S. stock futures higher in pre-market trading for , February 21.The Nasdaq Futures is trading at 7,092.50 up with +0.27% percent or +19.25 point.The Dow Futures is trading at 26,002.00 up with +0.15% percent or +38.00 point. The S&P 500 Futures is trading at 2,790.38 up with +0.12% percent or +3.38 point.
In overnight trading in the Eastern Hemisphere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 is trading at 21,464.23 up with +0.15% percent or +32.74 point. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is trading at 28,578.20 up with +0.22% percent or +64.15 point. China’s Shanghai Composite is trading at 2,748.62 with a loss of -0.46% percent or -12.60 point. India’s BSE Sensex is trading at 35,851.25 up with +0.27% percent or +94.99 point at 12:15 PM.The FTSE 100 is trading at 7,174.97 with a loss of -0.74% percent or -53.65 point. Germany’s DAX is trading at 11,446.43 up with +0.39% percent or +44.46 point. France’s CAC 40 is trading at 5,200.58 up with +0.089% percent or +4.64 point. The Stoxx Europe 600 is trading at 371.03 with a loss of -0.13% percent or -0.48 point.
Thursday’s Factors and Events
The Fed meeting minutes highlighted downside risks to the economy from its January meeting, including “the possibilities of a sharper-than-expected slowdown in global economic growth, particularly in China and Europe, a rapid waning of fiscal policy stimulus, or a further tightening of financial market conditions.”
“Slowing growth has been a low humming chorus in the market for a while now and today we’re hearing the Fed join in, which is a significant departure from the goldilocks rhetoric we’ve heard from them in the past,” said Mike Loewengart, vice president of investment strategy at E-Trade. “That said, slow growth does not mean recession.”
Friday’s Activity
For the day The Nasdaq Composite is trading at 7,489.07 up with +0.031% percent or +2.30 point.the Dow is trading at 25,954.44 up with +0.24% percent or +63.12 point. The S&P 500 is trading at 2,784.70 up with +0.18% percent or +4.94 point.
Other leading market index closes included the small-cap Russell 2000 Index closed at 1,581.66 up with +0.46% percent or +7.19 point; the S&P 600 Small-Cap Index closed at 987.87 up with +0.71% percent or +7.01 point; the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index closed at 1,925.12 up with +0.46% percent or +8.85 point; the S&P 100 Index closed at 1,221.74 up with +0.15% percent or +1.82 point; the Russell 3000 Index closed at 1,649.11 up with +0.18% percent or ++3.00 point; the Russell 1000 Index closed at 1,545.14 up with +0.16% percent or +2.48 point.