Stock futures were mostly higher Thursday after the big technology stocks that had been driving gains for two years retreated sharply on Wednesday.
Futures for the Nasdaq Composite suggested a modest rebound for the tech-heavy index, which fell Wednesday by 2.8%, the index’s worst performance since December 2022.
Key Events
Latest Updates
By
Joseph Hoppe, Dow Jones Newswires
Gold futures rise 0.35% to $2,468.7 a troy ounce, benefiting from a weaker U.S. dollar and safe-haven demand.
The precious metal is hovering under its record high of $2,487.4 a troy ounce set on Wednesday, as the dollar trades at a multimonth low against its peers, Ricardo Evangelista, senior analyst at ActivTrades, says.
The dollar has been under pressure as economic indicators point to a slowdown in U.S. activity and lower inflation, along with dovish comments from the Federal Reserve on the prospect of easing monetary policy, Evangelista says in a note.
Also, increasing safe-haven demand is supporting bullion as investor concern grows around escalating commercial tensions between China and the U.S., potentially triggering a new trade war between the world’s two leading economies, Evangelista adds.
U.S. stock futures were mixed Thursday after the big technology stocks that had been driving gains for two years retreated sharply on Wednesday.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 67 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures advanced 0.1%, and contracts tracking the technology-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.3%. The Dow finished at a record high on Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 1.4%, and the Nasdaq shed 2.8%—the biggest drop since December 2022.
Tech stocks have been hit both by a rotation away from them into the wider market and political rhetoric from former President Donald Trump, who said this week that Taiwan should be paying the U.S. for protection. That became a big drag on semiconductor companies, for which Taiwan is an important part of the supply chain. Nevertheless, traders are still more confident that the Federal Reserve will soon start cutting interest rates, which should bolster shares.
“After a relentless run of market advances, yesterday finally saw that come to an abrupt halt,” said Henry Allen, a strategist at Deutsche Bank. “But even as tech stocks were struggling, there was a continued rotation theme among equities, which meant that around half of the stocks in the S&P 500 actually ended the day higher.”
Bond yields were little changed. The rate on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond was at 4.18% early Thursday. The yield on the 2-year note was at 4.463%.
