New York (CNBC, Mar 20th,2020): U.S. stock futures turned around early Friday morning, pointing to opening gains after stocks managed to notch a positive Thursday session.
As of 5:00 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 846 points, implying a gain of more than 783 points at the open on Friday. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures also pointed to opening gains for the indexes.
Stocks rose on Thursday, with the Dow rising 188.27 points, or nearly 1%, to 20,087.19. The S&P 500 was up 0.5% at 2,409.39 while the Nasdaq Composite outperformed with a 2.3% surge to 7,150.58. The energy sector led stocks higher, gaining 6.75%, as oil posted its largest one-day percent gain in history.
Thursday’s relatively muted move was a break from the extreme volatility of late in the market, as investors try to make sense of the ongoing coronavirus-induced business slowdown.
On Wednesday, the Dow dropped 1,338.46 points, or 6.3%, to close below 20,000 for the first time since February 2017.