Positive Tesla results help Nasdaq futures maintain their momentum.

While futures tracking the S&P 500 and the Dow struggled to find direction ahead of fresh earnings reports, Nasdaq futures managed to gain ground on Thursday as electric car manufacturer Tesla surpassed Wall Street's profit target.

In premarket trade, Tesla (TSLA-RM) increased 3.4% as a string of automobile price rises boosted its quarterly profit. That lessened the impact of production issues, but CEO Elon Musk warned that it might reduce demand.

Megacap growth stocks, which have been under pressure from rising interest rates, have recently been bolstered by positive earnings results from Tesla and streaming juggernaut Netflix Inc (NFLX.USD).

Shares of Alphabet Inc (GOOGL), Amazon.com Inc (AMZ), and Apple Inc (APC) all saw gains of 0.2% to 0.4%.

Market players applauded the favourable results, but they are still nervously awaiting the Federal Reserve meeting next week, where policymakers are anticipated to hike interest rates by 75 basis points in order to rein in spiralling inflation.

The critical second-quarter U.S. gross domestic product data, which is probably going to be negative again, will come after the rate decision.

According to a general rule of thumb, the United States would be in a recession after two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.

"The environment for American corporate earnings appears difficult. With economic growth slowing, the US dollar strengthening, and margins appearing squeezed, we believe S&P 500 corporations will find it difficult to live up to the positive expectations reflected in analyst projections "Thomas Mathews, a market economist at Capital Economics, said.

According to Refinitiv data, analysts now anticipate an overall year-over-year increase in S&P 500 profit of 5.9 percent for the second quarter, down from their initial forecast of 6.8 percent.

At 6:53 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq 100 e-minis (NQH2023) were up 6.25 points, or 0.05 percent, while the S&P 500 e-minis (ESH2023) were down 7 points, or 0.18 percent.

Chevron Corp (CVX) lost 2.4 percent as a result of falling oil prices, while other energy firms such as Marathon Oil Corp (USS), Occidental Petroleum Corp (0KAK), and Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.USD) lost between 2.3 and 4.2 percent.