Wall Street drifted higher early today, the Associated Press reports, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.7% before the bell and futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.2%.
Nasdaq futures jumped more than 1% after the exchange said a connectivity problem had caused some orders to be canceled. It announced shortly after 8 a.m. that the issue had been resolved after more than two hours of disruption.
Google parent company Alphabet climbed 5.5% before the bell on reports that the tech giant is in talks with Apple to license Gemini to the iPhone maker. Gemini is Alphabet’s package of generative AI programs.
Wall Street is coming off its second straight losing week after several reports showing that inflation, though broadly cooling, remains stubborn.
In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil added 45 cents to $81.49 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 39 cents to $85.73 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar was unchanged at Japanese yen from 149.03 yen.
