Wall Street futures ease following Nasdaq’s record close; business surveys on deck

By Medha Singh

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures ticked lower on Friday, a day after the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed at a record high, as investors awaited U.S. business surveys for more clues on the economy’s health.

Surveys from the euro zone showed an economic recovery from its deepest downturn on record has stuttered this month, setting up a downbeat tone for IHS Markit’s surveys of the U.S. manufacturing and services sectors due later in the day.

U.S. stocks finished higher on Thursday as investors bet on tech heavyweights including Apple Inc and Amazon.com to ride out the pandemic as U.S. data painted a picture of a wobbly economic recovery.

Investors also worry about a stalemate in talks between House Democrats and the White House over the next coronavirus aid bill as about 28 million Americans continued to collect unemployment cheques.

Earlier this week, the S&P 500 clinched a record high, recouping the last of its losses caused by the coronavirus-driven slump and joining the Nasdaq in notching new highs.

The Dow still remains about 6% below its peak in February.

At 6:35 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 19 points, or 0.07%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 3.25 points, or 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 10 points, or 0.09%.

Among stocks, Deere & Co rose 4.5% premarket after it revised up its full-year earnings forecast and reported a smaller-than-expected decline in quarterly profit.

Pfizer rose 1.5% after reporting positive additional data from an early-stage study of its experimental coronavirus vaccine being developed in collaboration with German biotech firm BioNTech .

U.S.-listed shares of BioNTech jumped 8.1%.

Tesla gained another 1.8% after surging past the $2,000 mark on Thursday for the first time and extending its rally ahead of an upcoming share split.

(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)