Dollar on the back foot ahead of the NFP

US equity market

Asia-Pacific (APAC) indices mostly rose in the wake of a US equity market rebound. Dow Jones set a fresh record close on Thursday. The US dollar is on track to post weekly declines. The greenback is likely to react to US non-farm payrolls scheduled at 1.30 p.m.Expectations are for 180,000 job creations in February. The unemployment rate is expected to rise by 0.1 percentage points to 3.8%. Average hourly earnings are forecast to rise by 0.3% month-over-month (MoM) and 4.1% year-over-year (YoY).

Apple

Apple shares fell in extended trading on Thursday after the revenue forecast fell short of analysts' expectations. Apple reported sales of $119.58 billion and a profit of $2.18 per share, both above analyst expectations of $118.06 billion and $2.10 per share. It also confirmed analysts' fears that iPhone sales are losing ground in China. Q4 sales in China reached $20.82 billion, nearly $3 billion less than what the markets anticipated. However, global iPhone sales were Apple's earnings and sales key driver. They rose by 6% in fiscal Q1, higher than forecast. Regarding expectations for the current quarter, Apple said revenue will be at least $5 billion less than a year ago. This would mean revenue of about $90 billion, whereas Wall Street anticipated nearly $96 billion.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com shares jumped nearly 10% in extended trading. AI features in its cloud and e-commerce businesses spurred robust growth in Q4, which sent earnings and revenue above forecast. Amazon posted earnings of $1 per share on revenue of $170 billion. The market had expected earnings per share (EPS) of 79 cents and revenue of almost $166 billion. And there's a lot more to come, according to Amazon's CEO, Andy Jassy. Generative AI revenue is still relatively small, and he expects the technology to drive tens of billions of dollars of revenue over the next several years.

Meta

Meta shares jumped more than 16% all-sessions on the IG platform after Wall St. closed on Thursday after the Facebook owner posted better-than-expected earnings, sales, and forecasts and announced its first-ever dividend. Net income rose more than 200% to $14 billion, or $5.33 per share, exceeding expectations of $4.96 per share. Revenue for the fourth quarter rose 25% to $40.11 billion, above the $39.01 billion forecast. Meta announced a dividend of 50 cents per share. It also authorized an additional $50 billion in share repurchases.

Nvidia and AMD

The WSJ reported yesterday that Intel is delaying the construction timeline for its Ohio chip plant. It is now not expected to be finished until late 2026. This came as a shift in spending on AI data servers, dominated by rivals Nvidia and AMD, sapped demand for traditional server chips, which is Intel's core offering.

Exxon Mobil

After a week dominated by tech earnings, the oil sector takes to the stage today, with Exxon Mobil and Chevron each due to report second-quarter earnings before the market opens. Exxon Mobil is expected to post earnings of $2.2 per share and revenue of $91.12 billion. Chevron's earnings are seen at $3.2 billion per share, on revenue of $50.88 billion.

OPEC+

Yesterday, OPEC+ sources told the markets that it will decide in March whether to extend voluntary oil production cuts in place for the first quarter. For now, the organization has made no changes to the group's output policy.