US STOCKS-S&P 500, Nasdaq set to open higher, Nike weighs on Dow futures

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Nike (NKE) slides as Q2 gross margins drop

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Oracle up as ByteDance agrees deal on TikTok US app

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Futures: S&P up 0.06%, Nasdaq up 0.20%, Dow down 0.03%

(Updates to pre-open prices)

By Sruthi Shankar and Shashwat Chauhan

Dec 19 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were poised for modest opening gains on Friday, as technology stocks extended their rebound from an early-week selloff, while Nike (NKE) tumbled after weak China sales weighed ?on its quarterly results.

Nike (NKE) shares slumped 11.5% in premarket trading, after the sportswear giant reported a drop in gross margins for the second consecutive quarter, hurt by ?poor sales in China and efforts to reset its product mix.

The stock weighed on Dow futures, down 16 points, ?or 0.03%, by 8:34 a.m. ET.

"Nike (NKE) has not been innovating and it's paying the ?price for that. What I think ?really marked this quarter and surprised everybody was the decline in China business," said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners.

The S&P 500 E-minis ?were up 4.25 points, or 0.06%, while the Nasdaq 100 E-minis ?were up 48.5 points, or 0.20%.

U.S. stocks jumped on Thursday, led by tech gains after chipmaker Micron Technology's (MU) strong forecasts re-ignited optimism around AI-related shares, which had recently come under pressure over lofty valuations ?and funding concerns.

Most chip stocks rose on Friday, with ?Nvidia up 1%. Other ?megacap and growth stocks, including Tesla and Amazon.com (AMZN), too, gained.

Investors also drew comfort from U.S. consumer prices rising less than expected in November, although it was partly due to a government shutdown that delayed data collection ?until the second half of the month, when retailers were offering holiday-season discounts. Economists expect a pickup in inflation in December.

Traders continued to bet on at least two 25-basis-point interest rate cuts next year from the Federal Reserve, according to LSEG data, while attaching a 24% chance of such a move in January.

The Fed last week cut rates by 25 bps, but signaled borrowing costs were unlikely to fall further in the near term as policymakers await clarity on the direction of ?the labor market ?and inflation.

"Even though the inflation picture may be improving, we still expect the Fed to stay on pause in the first half of 2026 in an effort to emphasize its independence, as it's under political ?pressure to cut interest rates," said Alexander Guiliano, chief investment officer at Resonate Wealth Partners.

The University of Michigan's final reading on consumer sentiment in December is due at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Analysts warned of higher volatility on Friday due to "triple witching," which is the quarterly, simultaneous expiration of stock options, stock index futures and stock index options contracts.

Hurt by the tech selloff, the main U.S. stock indexes were on course for weekly losses, though Thursday's rebound helped trim some of those declines.

The S&P 500 has hit multiple record highs in ?2025 and is set for a third successive yearly gain.

Oracle jumped 4.9% after TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, signed binding agreements to hand control of the short video app's U.S. operations to a group of investors, including the cloud computing giant.

Parcel delivery company FedEx (FDX) dipped 2.6% after Chief Financial Officer John Dietrich said ?current-quarter earnings would be lower than the second-quarter results.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)