Cautious optimism hangs in the air on Thursday morning as index futures traded up moderately in early hours. The earnings season also heats up with more financial companies and streaming giant Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) scheduled to release quarterly results. Economic data on the housing market and the manufacturing sector, along with comments from Federal Reserve officials, may also impact the market. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, in a speech after the market closed on Wednesday, said the central bank needn’t rush to cut rates, but at some point when inflation eases closer to the 2% target, it could loosen its monetary policy stance. Meanwhile, Fed Governor Michelle Bowman commented that progress on curbing inflation has slowed and may have even stalled. Futures Performance On Thursday ( as of 6:00 a.m. EDT) Futures Performance (+/-) Nasdaq 100 +0.34% S&P 500 +0.24% Dow +0.22% R2K -0.01% In premarket trading on Thursday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) added 0.29% to $502.0, and the Invesco QQQ ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) gained 0.33% to $427.24, according to Benzinga Pro data. Cues From Previous Session: The lean patch on Wall Street continued on Wednesday despite the bond yields coming off recent highs. The culprit this time around was the premonition of potential earnings slowdown, especially from red-hot AI-levered companies, after Dutch semiconductor-equipment maker ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) was disappointed with a first-quarter revenue miss. Mortgage Bankers’ Association’s weekly mortgage applications volume data showed that 30-year fixed mortgage rates rising to their highest level since December 2023, also stirred inflation worries and weighed down on sentiment. The major indices opened higher but reversed course immediately after, declining through the morning and hitting the day’s low by the mid-session. Although the averages recouped some of the losses, they languished in the red ...