U.S. stock futures are mostly higher and pointed to a recovery on Wall Street, fueled by optimism from "big progress" in U.S.-Japan trade talks, as announced by President Donald Trump, raising hopes for deals to avert higher tariffs on U.S. partners. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell emphasized controlling inflation but adopted a cautious stance on tariffs, tempering expectations for swift central bank action to ease investor concerns. His remarks, combined with tariff-related tech sector worries, halted this week’s positive moves. Dow futures fell, dragged down by a 20% drop in UnitedHealth (UNH) after an earnings miss. Investors awaited key data on Jobless Claims and Housing Starts, with Netflix (NFLX) earnings due after the market close.

• Oil (/CL) – Oil prices are up 1% near $62.50 a barrel on the prospect of tighter supply after Washington imposed further sanctions to curb Iranian oil trade and as some OPEC producers pledged further output cuts to compensate for pumping above agreed quotas.

• Gold (/GC) – Gold is down slightly near $3,340 as investors booked profits after it hit an all-time high overnight as restrictions on chip sales to China and continued tariff uncertainty increased demand for the safe-haven asset.

• Bitcoin (/BTC) – The crypto future is relatively flat near $84.5K in the premarket.

• VIX – The CBOE Volatility Index was up 8.4% on Wednesday, and is now down 3% to 31.5.

• U.S. Dollar (/DX) – The dollar is flat near 99.

• Phillip Securities upgrades Bank of America (BAC) to Buy from Accumulate

• Redburn Atlantic upgrades MongoDB (MDB) to Neutral from Sell

• Scotiabank upgrades Intuit (INTU) to Outperform from Sector Perform

• KeyBanc downgrades Microsoft (MSFT) to Sector Weight from Overweight

• BMO Capital downgrades Novo Nordisk (NVO) to Market Perform from Outperform

• Seaport Research downgrades PayPal (PYPL) to Sell from Neutral

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