By Shubham Batra and Shashwat Chauhan (Reuters) -Futures tied to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq edged higher on Friday on dovish signals from Federal Reserve officials after a rally in the previous session following a report of a resilient labor market. Chipmaker Nvidia led the gains in megacap technology stocks in premarket trading, with a 1.4% advance.
U.S. stocks jumped on Thursday after jobless claims last week fell more than expected.
July's dour jobs data had raised fears of a slowdown in the United States. "Investors seem to be extremely sensitive to labor-related numbers and this is evident by the panic triggered by last week's NFP report, as well as by the repricing (of interest rate cuts) just after the jobless claims yesterday," Charalampos Pissouros, senior investment analyst at forex broker XM, said in a note. "This confirms the narrative that good data is now good for stocks, even if this translates into fewer basis points worth of Fed rate cuts.
" Global markets too have stabilized after a rout earlier this week, triggered by a surge in yen as a surprise rate hike by the Bank of Japan resulted in unwinding of currency carry trades. The CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's "fear gauge", declined to 23.62 points from a high of 65.
73 at the start of the week. Still, all major indexes were set for weekly losses, with both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq headed for a fourth straight week of fall. Money markets are evenly split between the Fed cutting rates by 50-basis points .