Dow Jones Today: Stock Futures Lower as Bumpy Start to October Continues

Stock futures were lower Thursday as investors keep a close eye on economic data, while oil prices continued rising amid concerns about escalating tension in the Middle East.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 were down 0.2%, while those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq 100 were off 0.3% about half an hour before the opening bell. The major indexes inched higher on Wednesday as the market steadied after a sharp downturn to start the month the previous session.

Weekly jobless claims data released early Thursday came in largely as economists had expected, and investors will now turn their attention tomorrow’s highly anticipated release of the September jobs report. Investors are closely following the data releases as they look for continued signs that the economy is headed for a soft landing and indications of how aggressive the Fed will be in cutting interest rates, after the central bank made its first cut to its benchmark rate in four years last month.

Among stocks on the move ahead of the opening bell, shares of Nvidia (NVDA) were up nearly 2% after CEO Jensen Huang said that demand for the company’s next-generation AI chips is “insane.” Tesla (TSLA) shares were down 1.5%, after falling sharply yesterday following a quarterly deliveries report that came in short of lofty Wall Street expectations.

Other mega-cap technology stocks were mostly lower, with Apple (AAPL), Meta Platforms (META), Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL) losing ground while Microsoft (MSFT) rose slightly.

Levi Strauss (LEVI) was the big decliner in premarket trading, with shares falling 11% after the company reported lower-than-expected revenue and cut its outlook for sales.

Crude oil futures were up more than 2%, extending a rally that’s been fueled by concerns that conflict in the Middle East that could disrupt production.

Gold futures were little changed at around $2,670 an ounce, while bitcoin was down slightly at around $60,500.