Stock Market Today: Dow futures struggle for traction as traders eye approaching jobs data
How are stock-index futures trading:
S&P 500 futures are up 0.01%.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are adding 0.01%.
Nasdaq 100 futures are off 0.05%.
On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 26 points, or 0.06%, to 42,707, the S&P 500 increased 33 points, or 0.55%, to 5,975, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 243 points, or 1.24%, to 19,865.
Futures indicate little change for stocks when the opening bell rings later on Wall Street as bullish sentiment is curtailed by the sight of Treasury yields holding near recent highs amid lingering concerns about stubborn inflation.
Traders will be keen to see what a raft of jobs data in coming sessions imply about the likely trajectory of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts. Today sees the job openings report, while the nonfarm payrolls data is published on Friday.
Still, the S&P 500 sits just 1.9% shy of its record high hit a month ago, with the latest gains coming from strength in big tech, particularly Nvidia. The AI-chipmaker rose 3.4% on Monday to a record high in anticipation of CEO Jensen Huang’s speech to the CES conference, and is up another 1.5% in premarket action.
“After a sluggish December, U.S. stocks have kicked off the year in style, with tech and semiconductors stealing the spotlight, buoyed by Nvidia buzz, chatter about Microsoft’s $80bn capex plans, and tariff optimism despite mixed signals from Trump,” says Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Susan Streeter, research director at XTB, says: “Some are concerned that tech stocks are too highly valued, however, a forward P/E ratio of 38x earnings [for Nvidia] is not that high for a tech company, analysts expect earnings and revenues to expand and new products beyond the Blackwell chip could also boost sales down the line.”
“Thus, tech stocks may continue to lead the charge higher in U.S. equity markets as we move through January,” Streeter adds.