Stock futures moved higher ahead of Friday’s session after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said inflation was tame enough that the central bank could cut rates at its next meeting, a more optimistic view than Chair Jerome Powell gave on Wednesday. Traders also bid stocks higher slightly as oil prices pulled back with President Donald Trump saying he would hold off deciding on an Iran strike. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 107 points, or 0.3%. Nasdaq 100 futures ticked up 0.3%, while S&P 500 futures gained 0.2%. U.S. markets were closed Thursday for the Juneteenth holiday. Those moves come after Waller said that the central bank could cut rates as early as July. “I think we’re in the position that we could do this and as early as July,” Waller said during a “Squawk Box” interview. “That would be my view, whether the committee would go along with it or not,” he added. Stocks closed lower Wednesday after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that the Fed is in no hurry to cut benchmark rates and will remain data dependent, especially as it remains unclear how Trump’s tariffs will impact the economy. That followed the central bank’s decision to hold interest rates steady. Trump ripped into Powell again Thursday, saying the Fed Chair is costing the U.S. “hundreds of billions of dollars” by delaying rate cuts. Investor fears around the conflict between Israel and Iran, which has yet to cool, were tamed after Trump said Thursday that he would decide whether to strike Iran within the next two weeks but wanted to allow for “a substantial chance of negotiations.” However, tensions still remained high as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly ordering Jerusalem’s military to strike “strategic targets” in Iran, as well as “government targets.” Trump is weighing direct U.S. involvement with a strike on Tehran, with the White House on Thursday saying that he will make a final decision within the next two weeks. Trump previously called for Tehran’s complete surrender, to which Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, labeled the notion “threatening and ridiculous.” “There are several key questions to answer before we know how stocks will handle this geopolitical shock, including how much of Iran’s energy infrastructure will be impaired and for how long, whether Iran’s nuclear capabilities will be completely wiped out, and whether the current regime will remain in power,” said Jeff Buchbinder, chief equity strategist for LPL Financial. For the week, the S&P 500 is up marginally with a gain of 0.07%. The 30-stock Dow has lost 0.06%, while the Nasdaq has advanced about 1%. Tesla shares were higher Friday, just two days before the electric vehicle maker’s expected launch of its robotaxi service in in Austin, Texas. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a Friday note that he believes Tesla’s market cap could reach $2 trillion by the end of 2026 as a result of the rise of autonomous vehicles. U.S. Treasury yields were little changed on Friday, as markets continued to monitor the conflict between Israel and Iran in which President Donald Trump is considering ordering direct U.S. intervention. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury traded more than 2 basis points higher at 4.421%. The 2-year note yield hovered at 3.942%, while the 30-year bond yield ticked more than 2 basis points higher to 4.924%. Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Friday after China kept benchmark rates steady, while investors monitored escalating tensions between Israel and Iran. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index ended the day 1.26% higher at 23,530, while mainland China’s CSI 300 index closed flat at 3,846.64, after the People’s Bank of China expectedly kept its loan rates unchanged at 3.0% for the 1-year loan prime rate and 3.5% for the 5-year LPR. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 closed 0.22% lower at 38,403.23 while the broader Topix index fell 0.75% in choppy trade to 2,771.26. The country’s core inflation rate climbed to 3.7% in May, its highest level since January 2023. The metric — which strips out costs for fresh food — was higher than the 3.6% expected by economists polled by Reuters and is above April’s print of 3.5%. In South Korea, the Kospi index increased by 1.48% to end the day at 3,021.84, it’s highest in over 42 months, after crossing the 3,000 mark for the first time in 42 months, earlier in the session. Meanwhile, the small-cap Kosdaq climbed 1.15% to 791.53. Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 ended the day down 0.21%, paring losses to close at 8,505.50. Oil prices fell more than 3% on Friday as President Donald Trump holds off for now on helping Israel to destroy OPEC member Iran’s nuclear program. Global benchmark Brent fell $2.78, or 3.53%, to $76.07 per barrel. U.S. crude oil gained 84 cents, or 1.12%, to $74.30 per barrel. Gold prices fell on Friday and were poised for their worst weekly performance in more than a month after the Federal Reserve tempered expectations for rate cuts and on a temporary easing of concerns about an imminent U.S. attack on Iran. Spot gold slipped 0.4% to $3,355.97 an ounce, and was down 2.2% for the week so far. U.S. gold futures shed 1% to $3,372.20. The dollar was up 0.4% so far this week and poised for its biggest weekly gain in over a month, making gold more expensive for holders of other currencies.