By Niket Nishant and Utkarsh Hathi
May 1 (Reuters) – S&P 500 and Dow futures edged higher on Friday, buoyed by strong earnings after the indexes logged their biggest monthly gains in years, offsetting fears of a historic supply shock in the oil markets.
Apple rose 3% in premarket trading after robust demand for its flagship iPhone 17 and MacBook Neo led the company to forecast solid sales growth for the fiscal third quarter.
The latest data showed U.S. economic growth regained momentum in the first quarter and inflation accelerated in March, strengthening the case for higher interest rates, but it did little to stall the equity rally.
However, the buying frenzy may be due for a reality check. Consumer spending, the economy’s main growth engine, decelerated in the quarter and the personal savings rate also declined, suggesting consumers tapped into savings to support outlays.
Besides, the figures take into account just one month of the disruption stemming from the Middle East war. With the conflict showing few signs of abating, oil prices may become a bigger burden on households, especially as the support from tax refunds in the first quarter tapers off.
Brent crude prices have hit over $110 a barrel as the crucial shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted.
“GDP expanded at a respectable-looking pace in Q1, but a glance under the hood suggests the economy’s underlying momentum already was anemic before the energy shock was felt in earnest,” said Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
This comes at an inconvenient time for bulls as markets enter May, historically the start of a weaker six-month stretch for stocks.
Since 1945 through April 2026, the S&P 500 has gained an average of about 2% from May to October, according to data from Fidelity. That compares with a roughly 7% average gain November through April.
At 6:35 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis rose 114 points, or 0.23%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 7.75 points, or 0.11%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis fell 41.75 points, or 0.15%.
The S&P 500 ended April with its biggest monthly percentage gain since November 2020, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced the most since April 2020. The Dow’s monthly advance was its biggest since November 2024.
Among energy companies, Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported first-quarter profit above estimates and rose 1.8% each before the bell.
Shares of software companies climbed after Atlassian lifted its annual forecast.
The enterprise software maker surged 24.4%, while peers Salesforce and ServiceNow added 2%. Datadog and Workday gained 1.4% and 2.9%, respectively.
Other major movers included Roblox, which fell 24.4% following a cut in its annual bookings forecast.
Reddit gained 15.3% after an upbeat quarterly revenue forecast.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant and Utkarsh Hathi in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Pooja Desai)
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