Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures are currently pointing to a higher open on Friday, with stocks likely to regain ground after trending lower over the past few sessions.

The markets may benefit from bargain hunting following the recent pullback, which saw the major averages close lower for four straight sessions.

Renewed strength among technology stocks may contribute to an early advance, as reflected by the 1.0 percent jump by the Nasdaq 100 futures.

Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE:TSM) are surging by 2.7 percent in pre-market trading after the U.S. government granted the chipmaker its annual license to import equipment to its facilities in China.

Major AI players Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) are also seeing significant pre-market strength after soaring last year.

Stocks may also benefit from a continuation of the upward momentum seen for much of 2025, which lifted the major averages to new record highs.

Overall trading activity may be somewhat subdued, however, as some traders remain away from their desks following the New Year’s Day holiday on Thursday.

A lack of major U.S. economic data may also keep some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of several key reports next week, including the closely watched monthly jobs report.

Extending a recent downward move, stocks saw continued weakness during light New Year’s Eve trading on Wednesday. The major averages all showed notable moves to the downside over the course of the session.

The major averages ended the day just off their lows of the session. The Dow fell 303.77 points or 0.6 percent to 48,063.29, the Nasdaq slid 177.09 points or 0.8 percent to 23,241.99 and the S&P 500 declined 50.74 points or 0.7 percent to 6,845.50.

The extended pullback on Wall Street came as some traders continued to cash in on the recent strength in the markets.

While the major averages closed lower for the fourth straight session, the weakness came after the Dow and S&P 500 ended last Wednesday’s trading at record closing highs.

Despite giving back ground over the past few days, the major averages still posted strong gains for the full year.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq skyrocketed by 20.4 percent for the year, while the S&P 500 soared by 16.4 percent and the Dow surged by 13.0 percent.

Stocks showed a quick recovery after plummeting in reaction to President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs in early April and saw further upside due in large part to strength among big-name tech companies.

On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly dipped in the week ended December 27th.

The report said initial jobless claims fell to 199,000, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 215,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 220,000 from the 214,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Biotechnology stocks turned in some of the market’s worst performances on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index down by 1.9 percent.

Considerable weakness was also visible among gold stocks amid a slump by the price of the precious metal, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index falling by 1.4 percent.

Computer hardware, brokerage, networking and semiconductor stocks also saw notable weakness, moving lower along with most of the other major sectors.

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