US Stock Likely To Open Higher Ahead of Trump’s Inaugration: All 11 Sectors To Report Growing Profits In 2025, Says Analyst

U.S. stock futures were trading higher on Friday morning, recovering from the previous day’s losses. Futures across all major indices showed gains.

Although the S&P 500 ended its winning streak on Thursday, a strong Friday session could potentially result in the best weekly performance for the index since the November election.

The 10-year Treasury note yielded 4.60% and the two-year note was at 4.23%. Market expectations for the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting outcome on Jan. 31 suggest a high probability of 97.3% that the central bank will maintain interest rates at their current level, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

Major stock market ETFs, such as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY and the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ, were trading higher in pre-market trading on Friday. SPY saw a 0.35% increase to $593.70, while QQQ climbed 0.44% to $515.33, according to Benzinga Pro.

Cues From The Last Session

U.S. stocks closed lower on Thursday, ending a three-day winning streak. The tech sector weighed heavily on the market, with Apple Inc. AAPL and Nvidia Corp. NVDA shares declining significantly.

Morgan Stanley MS and Bank of America Corp. BAC posted positive earnings reports. Whereas, retail sales growth slowed in December, and jobless claims rose slightly, potentially dampening investor sentiment.

While most sectors finished the day in positive territory, including utilities, real estate, and industrials, the technology and communication services sectors dragged down the overall market.

Insights From Analysts

As Donald Trump moves to the White House on Monday, Dec. 20, Robin Brooks, the ex-Goldman Sachs FX Strategist and a senior fellow at Brookings Institution said the tariff confrontation between the U.S. and China could prove detrimental to the S&P 500.

China’s most “potent weapon” is the depreciation of the yuan as an offset to additional U.S. tariffs. This could negatively impact the U.S. economy, potentially tightening financial conditions and weighing on the S&P 500, Brooks said in his research note.

Even though the new administration may seek to mitigate this by implementing targeted tariffs or a phased-in, conditional universal tariff, he said, “Given how little is priced, it seems likely that market volatility will rise in the months ahead.”

Highlighting the corporate earnings in 2025, Callie Cox, the chief market strategist at Ritholtz Wealth Management, said in an X post “All 11 sectors are expected to report growing profits, which would be the first time that’s happened since 2018.

Carson Research’s report analyzing bull markets over the past 50 years shows that the 1987 and 2002 bull markets spanned five years each, while the 1974 bull market extended for 6.2 years.

Notably, the 2009 bull market lasted for 11 years, the longest in recent times. Additionally, the 1988 bull market held a record at 12.3 years.

On average, these five bull markets over the last 50 years were 7.9 years long.

“Looking at the previous 11 bull markets, we found the average bull lasted more than five years, suggesting even though this bull market is mighty, it could have plenty of room left to run,” the note stated.

See Also: How to Trade Futures

Upcoming Economic Data

• On Friday, Housing Starts and Building Permits for December will be announced at 8:30 a.m. ET.

• Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for December is slated to release at 9:15 a.m. ET.

Stocks In Focus:

• Fastenal Co. FAST was up 0.17% in premarket on Friday as Wall Street expects it to report quarterly earnings at 48 cents per share on revenue of $1.84 billion before the opening bell before the opening bell.

• State Street Corp. STT was up 0.01% ahead of its earnings before the opening bell. Analysts expect it to report quarterly earnings of $2.43 per share on revenue of $3.32 billion.

• Schlumberger NV SLB was up 0.51% in premarket on Friday as Wall Street expects it to report quarterly earnings of 90 cents per share on revenue of $9.18 billion before the opening bell.

• JB Hunt Transport Services Inc. JBHT dropped 10.85% after reporting weaker-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter on Thursday.

• Versus Systems Inc. VS was up 83.85% as it announced its expansion into Brazil to leverage its gamification platform to transform audience engagement across industries.

• iSpecimen Inc. ISPC, a leading online biospecimen marketplace, was up 44.56% as it secured the critical hMPV virus specimens as cases surged in China.

• Qorvo Inc. QRVO was up 7.09% as the activist investor Starboard Value LP reportedly acquired a 7.7% stake worth approximately $500 million in the struggling semiconductor manufacturer for potential operational changes.

Commodities, Gold And Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil futures were trading higher in the early New York session by 0.32% to hover around $78.10 per barrel.

The gold spot index was down by 0.77% to $2,729.99 per ounce. The Dollar Index was up 0.13% at 109.104 level.

Most Asian markets closed lower on Friday including Australia’s ASX 200, Japan’s Nikkei 225, and South Korea’s Kospi index. On the other hand, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s CSI 300 index advanced. European markets were trading higher.

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