US futures edge higher on upbeat Tesla outlook

US stock index futures edged higher on Thursday ahead of economic growth data with the Nasdaq climbing nearly half a percent as Tesla's bullish sales outlook eased worries over the fallout of an economic slowdown on the EV maker.

After Microsoft Corp's disappointing outlook spooked markets in the previous session, Tesla Inc's better-than-expected quarterly results reassured investors that the EV maker could cope with a slowing economy in 2023.

Tesla jumped 7% in premarket trading, lifting other EV makers like Rivian Automotive, Lucid Group and NIO, which rose between 3.3% and 5%. Growth stocks have been on a winning spree in January, with the S&P 500 Growth index recouping more than half of the losses logged last month.

Focus will be on fourth-quarter GDP advance data at 8:30 a.m. ET, which will likely show the U.S. economy maintained a strong pace of growth, but the momentum slowed considerably towards 2022 end, as higher interest rates chip away demand.

The Commerce Department's report could mark the last quarter of solid growth before effects of the Federal Reserve's aggressive tightening spree take hold, with most economists expecting a mild recession by the second half of 2023. Also on tap is December housing data and weekly jobless claims data.

"All eyes will be on the GDP snapshot, jobs and home sales data out later, indicating whether demand is being squeezed out of the economy and whether more storm clouds are gathering on the horizon," Susannah Streeter, markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown wrote in a note.

Money markets are pricing in a 25 basis points rate hike by the Fed next week, with a terminal rate of 4.9% in June, still below 5% as backed by many policymakers.

Keeping a lid on gains for Dow e-minis was software firm IBM Corp, which slid 2% after it missed annual cash flow targets, while also flagging a slowing growth in its software and consulting businesses.

At 6:42 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 21 points, or 0.06%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 6.25 points, or 0.16%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 65 points, or 0.55%. Chevron Corp rose 2.9% after the oil major said it would triple its budget for share buybacks to $75 billion. Southwest Airlines Co slipped 2.9% on warning of a loss in the first quarter.

All right, that wraps up today's trading day. When you take a look at the numbers across the board, we didn't travel too far from the flat line. The Dow barely eking out gains, slipping back into positive territory in the final couple of minutes of trading, up just about 9 points, though. The S&P off by a fraction there, just below the flat line. The NASDAQ off just about 2/10 of a percent.

Let's get into some of the day's top movers. We got to start with Shopify. It was a major winner today, the company announcing price increases to three of its plans. And you can see the stock closing up nearly 11%.

Now merchants will now be charged $39 for the Basic plan. That's up from $29. $105 for the Shopify plan, an increase from 79 bucks. And the Advanced plan has the largest increase, moving from $299 up to $399.

Indeed, this is a welcome move by the Street, some analysts saying that this was a long overdue. Truist saying that price increases were due now for quite some time. So that increased by about 30%, 33% across the board for its plans. Clearly it looks like the Street is pretty bullish on that, given what that could potentially do to its revenue.

Long overdue, yes, 12 years since they've increased their prices. But also, to your point there, these are massive price increases, essentially a third across the board, leaving you with that question of how many people are going to ditch Spotify because of that drastic a price increase in this economy, with inflation what it is, with the potential recession around the corner? Initially, I think, a lot of people may have to get rid of Shopify.

But that's not what the analysts think because Baird says we don't think these prices warrant a change for the vast majority of merchants, given a couple of things, the time and effort required to shift platforms and, probably most importantly, that Shopify offers superior e-commerce functionality at a reasonable price. KeyBank analyst also agrees that people will not have to leave Shopify.