U.S. stock index futures rose on Thursday, powered by Magnificent Seven heavyweights Microsoft and Meta as their strong quarterly results pointed to a resilient outlook for the technology sector. Microsoft surged nearly 9% in premarket trading after it forecast stronger-than-expected quarterly growth for its cloud-computing business Azure.

Futures on Wall Street are extending their recovery from Wednesday, surging sharply in the after-market session. The Dow futures are now up 180 points, the S&P 500 futures are up 50, while the Nasdaq futures are up 280 points led by a strong earnings show from both Microsoft and Meta.

U.S. stock index futures fell after a worse-than-expected GDP reading for the first quarter stoked worries of a slowdown in the world's largest economy amid a global trade war. Gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.

Pessimism on Wall Street has increased since the Q1 GDP report showed that the erratic trade policy caused productivity to slide farther than expected. The slowdown is being blamed on a surge in imports ahead of U.