April 30 (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were mixed on Thursday, as investors weighed strong tech earnings against renewed inflation worries sparked by oil prices hitting their highest in over four years.
Brent crude futures rose 2.3% on fears of a protracted disruption in oil markets, after an Axios report said President Donald Trump was slated to receive a briefing from the leader of the U.S. Central Command on new plans for potential military action against Iran.
The report undermined weeks of optimism that diplomatic efforts to resolve the U.S.-Iran war would stay on track despite setbacks.
“The oil market has moved from over-optimism to the reality of the supply disruption. The breakdown of talks between the U.S. and Iran… has the market losing hope for any quick resumption in oil flows,” said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING Economics.
At 5:07 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis fell 193 points, or 0.39%, S&P 500 E-minis were flat and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 49 points, or 0.18%.
Tech earnings were largely strong, although shares of Meta Platforms and Microsoft fell 8% and 1.9%, respectively, in the premarket session a day after they laid out their capital spending plans.
Google parent Alphabet rose 6.1% following a record quarter for its cloud unit, while Amazon added 1.9% after exceeding cloud sales expectations.
Investors were assessing commentary from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday. The central bank voted to keep interest rates unchanged but three officials signaled that inflation was too high to signal a bias toward rate cuts.
Sentiment will also hinge on the upcoming first-quarter GDP report and the Personal Consumption Expenditures data, scheduled to be released on Thursday.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
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