Dow Jones Today: Stock Futures Rise Slightly as Market Looks to Extend Rally
Stock futures inched higher on Wednesday as market participants await fresh developments on the trade front and economic data releases.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq each added 0.2% recently. The major indexes are coming off of two straight days of gains, boosted by the strong performance of technology stocks.
Stocks have rallied in recent weeks—the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite posted their biggest monthly gains last month since November 2023—as concerns about President Donald Trump’s tariff plans have subsided, while corporate earnings have remained strong and various indicators have shown the economy to be resilient.
Investors appeared to be looking past Trump’s comment this morning, in a post on Truth Social, that Chinese President Xi Jinping is “extremely hard to make a deal with.” The two countries last month suspended the massive tariffs they had imposed on one another while they worked on a broader trade agreement, and recent back-and-forth from the countries has at times roiled financial markets. Meanwhile, investors will be keeping a close eye on labor market data, with private sector payrolls numbers set for release this morning and the May jobs report coming on Friday.
Shares of the world’s largest technology companies were moving higher ahead of the bell on Wednesday, once again led by chip stocks. Nvidia (NVDA), which surpassed Microsoft (MSFT) yesterday as the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization, was up nearly 1%, as was rival chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO). Microsoft, Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), Meta Platforms (META) and Tesla (TSLA) inched higher, while Apple (AAPL) fell slightly.
Among other noteworthy tech movers, AI cloud company CoreWeave (CRWV) was up 6% in premarket trading, after gaining 25% yesterday, one day after the Nvidia-backed company signed a long-term data center leasing deal with Applied Digital (APLD).
A handful of companies were on the move after releasing quarterly results. Shares of CrowdStrike (CRWD) tumbled nearly 7% this morning after the cybersecurity provider issued disappointing revenue guidance. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) was up about 7% after a better-than-expected earnings report, while Dollar Tree (DLTR) fell more than 3% after topping Wall Street estimates, though the discount retailer warned that tariffs could take a bite out of profits.
Bitcoin was at $105,100 in recent trading, down from an overnight high of $106,300. The digital currency is down from its record high of around $112,000 set two weeks ago.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the performance of the dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, was holding steady at around 99.20. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects borrowing costs on all sorts of consumer and business loans, was also little changed at 4.45%.
Gold futures were down 0.2% at $3,370 an ounce, losing ground for the second straight day, while West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, were holding steady around $63.40 a barrel, after posting big gains in recent sessions amid geopolitical uncertainty.