Stock Market Today: Dow futures dip as tremors from latest sell-off reverberate

The stock market’s failure to hold its initial rally on Wednesday is not of great concern to Mark Newton, head of technical strategy at Fundstrat.

“Rather, I see this as simply as a consolidation after this initial move off the lows,” he says in a new note, though he acknowledges that Monday’s trough for the S&P 500 (SPX) of 5,119 will be important to hold given any further pullback.

“In the days ahead, ideally, SPX should hold this week’s lows and turn higher to test and exceed Wednesday’s highs at 5330.64. This should carry SPX up to 5394, near the 50% retracement of the decline from July,” says Newton.

Stocks making notable moves in Thursday’s premarket action:

Here are some of the companies presenting results on Thursday:

Before the opening bell.

After the close.

How are stock-index futures trading:

On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 234 points, or 0.6%, to 38,763, the S&P 500 declined 41 points, or 0.77%, to 5,200, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 171 points, or 1.05%, to 16,196.

Futures early Thursday indicate a cautious start to trading when the opening bell rings on Wall Street.

A mixed Asia session, which included a 0.7% fall for Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 as the Japanese yen strengthened again, and broad declines across European bourses are contributing to the tentative tone.

The CBOE VIX index, a gauge of expected S&P 500 volatility, remains near 28, still notably above its long run average of around 20.

“Volatility remains higher than average in markets and it is still unclear to what degree investors and traders need to change their portfolios,” said analysts at Saxo in a morning note.

“To get the next jolt in markets we need a big negative surprise on the economy and the initial jobless claims today could be exactly that macro report,” Saxo added.

Indeed, including the jobless claims, here are some potential market catalysts due Thursday for traders to consider: