us stock index futures were pointing to a strong start on thursday led by nasdaq with the dow jones industrial average heading for a record fourteenth straight day of gains after secondquarter gdp data came in stronger than expected while earnings reports were also supportive on wednesday the dow jones industrial average rose 82 points or 023 to 35520 the sp 500 declined 1 points or 002 to 4567 and the nasdaq composite dropped 17 points or 012 to 14127 the dow rose for the 13th straight sessions through wednesday the longest winning run since jan 20 1987 in us economic data secondquarter gdp rose 24 compared with 2 growth during the quarter ended in march while weekly jobless benefit claims fell to the lowest since february see gdp increases at 24 annual pace in the second quarter meta platforms meta also provided a boost to us stocks after reporting late wednesday shares of the facebook and instagram owner climbed 8 following betterthanexpected earnings and a strongerthanforecast revenue outlook for the current quarter before markets opened investors also digested earnings reports from comcast corp cmcsa and mcdonalds corp mcd both companies beat wall streets expectations for sales results from chipmaking giant intel intc are due out after the close on wednesday the fed on wednesday hiked interest rates by a quarter percentage point to a range between 525 and 55 a decision that financial markets suggest could be the final rate hike this cycle even though officials at the central bank kept their options open analysts at hsbc say the fed funds target will be kept at this new range until the second quarter of 2024 followed by 75 basis points of cuts next year the lack of hawkish additions or tweaks in the statement together with jerome powells press conference and the change of language in the statement from modest to moderate growth were  on balance  taken initially as a slight positive by risk assets they said adding they expect the 2year treasury yields to trade within their recent range of 46 to 5 in other central banking news the european central bank followed the fed with an interestrate hike of its own it raised its deposit rate by 25 basis points or a quarter of a percentage point to 375 this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal