Wall Street indices dipped modestly on Thursday as investors monitored the soaring valuations in artificial intelligence stocks alongside the Supreme Court’s hearing on the legality of Trump-era tariffs.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.2%, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.3%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded near unchanged.
The market’s rebound from yesterday’s jitters was supported by a surge in private job gains and solid quarterly results despite lingering concerns over soaring tech stock prices.
Market participants remain focused on key economic signals and earnings from major companies to gauge the path forward.
Wall Street open: Pre-market trading reflects cautious optimism
Before the opening bell, US stock index futures showed modest gains reflecting cautious optimism among investors.
Dow futures inched up by 0.03%, S&P 500 E-minis rose 0.16%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis climbed 0.15%, signaling a steady start for the day.
This follows Wednesday’s solid gains, where the Dow closed up 0.48%, boosted by the Supreme Court’s skeptical questioning of Trump-era tariffs and renewed confidence in AI-related stocks like AMD.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq also gained 0.65%, supported by a rebound from recent valuation-driven losses.
Investors welcomed a private payroll report revealing an increase of 42,000 jobs in October, more than expected, which helped offset concerns about slower overall job growth and the ongoing US government shutdown that has limited some official economic data releases.
The continued rise in Treasury yields, with the 10-year yield hitting 4.16%, reflects market expectations that the Federal Reserve may hold interest rates steady or potentially cut rates later this year, though the odds of a December rate cut have dropped from 72% to about 64%.
Traders are closely watching speeches from Fed officials later in the day for further clues on monetary policy.
Qualcomm shares more than 2% in early trading due to warnings of possible losses from Samsung business next year, though its quarterly results beat forecasts.
Meanwhile, companies like Datadog and Moderna saw pre-market gains after strong earnings upgrades and better-than-expected results.
Key market events and focus points today
Investors are keeping a close eye on a wave of earnings results across different sectors this week, especially with the economic picture still looking a bit mixed.
Earnings season is still a big driver right now.
About 64% of S&P 500 companies have reported so far, and roughly 83% of those have beaten expectations, which suggests things are holding up better than some had feared, even with inflation, geopolitical tensions, and rate uncertainty still in the background.
One area people are watching closely is communication services, especially names like Alphabet and Meta. Their recent results helped lift the market and could continue to influence sentiment if those gains hold.
On the economic side, data like private payroll numbers and the ISM services report suggest the US economy is still resilient.
But there’s still debate around the pace of job growth, whether we are seeing a genuine rebound or something more uneven.
Meanwhile, everything comes back to the Federal Reserve. Investors are trying to balance the hope that growth remains strong with the risk that inflation could flare back up and delay rate cuts.
And of course, there are still plenty of wild cards: geopolitical tensions, the ongoing government shutdown affecting data releases, and speeches from Fed officials that could shift expectations again.
Thursday is shaping up to be a steady-but-cautious kind of trading day, careful, but not pessimistic.
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