Nasdaq futures up 158 points (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - New York, 22 Jul - US futures were higher as investors assessed fallout from President Biden's decision this weekend not to seek re-election.

Biden's announcement that he would pull out of the presidential race and endorse Vice-President Kamala Harris as candidate to take on Republican rival Donald Trump has raised uncertainty and put politics back centre stage.

The move, while not unexpected, could spark volatility and refocus attention on campaign pledges from both sides of the political divide as the landscape slowly shifts.

Wall Street ended lower on Friday after a disruptive IT outage upset businesses worldwide. The S&P 500 and tech heavy Nasdaq fell 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively, to post their worst weekly losses since April.

The week witnessed a change of sentiment for smaller stocks as investors rotated away from the Big Tech names that to date have driven indexes higher on the AI play to companies that have fared less well in the rally.

On the earnings front today Verizon Communications is among companies updating financials while Tesla and Google parent Alphabet are scheduled for tomorrow.

Shares in CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity company behind last week's global tech outage, were down 4% after slumping 11% on Friday.

Futures on the Dow Jones were up 49.00 points, or 0.12%, S&P 500 futures were up 26.50 points, or 0.48%, while futures on the Nasdaq were 158.00 points, or 0.80%, higher.

AAA-Sje

(RADIOCOR) 22-07-24 13:56:00 (0337) 5 NNNN