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Nasdaq says U.S. markets to open normally

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Netflix ( NFLX ) slips on downbeat Q3 revenue, subscriber additions

forecast

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SLB up after beating quarterly profit estimates

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Insurer Travelers gains on higher Q2 profit

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Futures: Dow down 0.19%, S&P 500 up 0.10%, Nasdaq up 0.15%

(Updated at 8:42 a.m. ET/1242 GMT)

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Ankika Biswas

July 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures pointed to

a mixed open in choppy trading on Friday as investors paused

after a two-day selloff and assessed the impact of a sweeping

global tech outage that weighed heavily on CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) shares.

An update to one of CrowdStrike's ( CRWD ) products

appeared to be the trigger for the

cyber outage that affected customers using Microsoft's ( MSFT )

Windows Operating System, disrupting businesses across

sectors and sending the cybersecurity firm's shares down 12.6%

in premarket trading.

Major U.S. airlines ordered ground stops citing

communication issues, while the Euronext exchange and London

Stock Exchange Group's ( LDNXF ) Workspace news and data platform

also faced issues.

LSEG said its data and services were back online, while

the Nasdaq said it expected U.S. markets to open

normally.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) shed 1.2%, on track for its fourth straight day of

losses driven by a rout in tech stocks.

"Any hint of bad news, because they're (tech stocks) so

priced to perfection is going to hurt these stocks, both

(CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) and Microsoft ( MSFT )) are excellent companies and are

worthwhile long-term holds," said Phil Blancato, CEO of

Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management.

The disruption comes after two grueling sessions for Wall

Street, as investors assessed second-quarter earnings and a move

away from megacap tech stocks that have primarily driven the

equity rally in 2024.

Megacap stocks were largely mixed, with Nvidia ( NVDA )

and Amazon.com ( AMZN ) losing 0.2% each, while Apple ( AAPL )

and Alphabet gained 0.9% and 0.8%.

"We're in a scenario where finally the markets realized

that there's better opportunities in other places ... now

profit-taking in Big Tech has created this rotation," Blancato

said.

Chip stocks also struggled for direction. U.S.-listed shares

of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing were down nearly

1%, while Arm Holdings jumped 2.8%.

Over the past two sessions, the tech-laden Nasdaq

has fallen 3.5%, the benchmark S&P 500 lost 2.1% and the

Russell 2000 snapped a five-day winning streak on

Wednesday.

Russell futures edged 0.1% higher.

Signaling investor unease, the VIX - Wall

Street's "fear gauge" - was trading at its highest since early

May.

Investors will also await comments from U.S. Federal Reserve

officials John Williams and Raphael Bostic for hints on the

monetary policy path later in the day.

Markets have broadly priced in a 25-basis-point

interest-rate cut from the Fed's September meeting and still

expect two cuts by the year-end according to LSEG data.

At 8:42 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 78 points,

or 0.19%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 5.75 points, or 0.1%,

and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 29 points, or 0.15%.

Meanwhile, cybersecurity shares rose, with Palo Alto

Networks ( PANW ) jumping 3.4% and SentinelOne ( S ) up 10.2%

after the global disruption.

Netflix ( NFLX ) rose 1.1%, reversing earlier losses after

the streaming giant beat expectations for subscriber gains even

as it cautioned that third-quarter subscriber additions would be

lower than a year earlier.

Intuitive Surgical ( ISRG ) climbed 5% after second-quarter

results beat estimates, while Eli Lilly ( LLY ) jumped 2.5%

after its weight-loss drug tirzepatide was approved in China.

0ilfield services provider SLB and insurer Travelers

Companies ( TRV ) both rose 2% after reporting strong profit for

the second quarter.