Israel-Lebanon Ceasefire, S&P 500's Record Close Drive US Equity Futures Higher Pre-Bell
US equity futures were higher pre-bell Friday as a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon went into effect while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite posted new all-time highs on Thursday.Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were 0.6% higher, S&P 500 futures were up 0.4%, and Nasdaq futures were 0.3% higher.The halt of Israel's attacks on Lebanon has been an important condition for the resumption of US-Iran talks, which President Donald Trump said could occur "probably, maybe, next weekend" in remarks made outside the White House on Thursday. Trump also said that a deal with Iran could be finalized ideally before the US-Iran ceasefire ends on Tuesday, but he was willing to extend if necessary.The S&P 500 gained 0.3% to close at 7,041.28, while the Nasdaq advanced 0.4% to end at 24,102.70.Traders took note of results from two major banks, with Truist Financial (TFC) reporting higher Q1 earnings and revenue and Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) posting lower Q1 earnings amid higher revenue.Oil prices were lower, with front-month global benchmark North Sea Brent crude down 4.2% at $95.17 per barrel and US West Texas Intermediate crude 4.9% lower at $90.08 per barrel.Federal Reserve San Francisco President Mary Daly, Richmond President Thomas Barkin, and Governor Christopher Waller are scheduled to speak on Friday.In other world markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 1.8% lower, Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended 0.9% lower, and China's Shanghai Composite finished 0.1% lower. Meanwhile, the UK's FTSE 100 was down 0.1%, and Germany's DAX index was 0.5% higher in Europe's early afternoon session.In equities, Netflix (NFLX) stock was down 9.5% after the company issued Q2 guidance late Thursday that fell short of analysts' consensus. The streaming company also said that its chairman and co-founder, Reed Hastings, plans to step down when his term ends in June. Exelon (EXC) shares were 1.6% lower after the company's stock rating was downgraded by Mizuho, Barclays and BMO Capital.On the winning side, Eli Lilly (LLY) stock was up 1.9% after the company said its experimental drug Foundayo met its primary endpoint of a phase 3 clinical trial by showing a lower risk of severe cardiovascular incidents compared with insulin glargine in adults with type 2 diabetes. Oracle (ORCL) shares were up 2.6% after the company said it plans to expand its multi-cloud networking capabilities to provide connectivity between Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Amazon (AMZN) Web Services.