U.S. stock index futures were flat-to-slightly lower on Thursday, as investors paused after Wall Street’s strong performance in the previous session and focused on corporate earnings, economic data, and President Donald Trump’s remarks – all lined up through the day.
At 7:12 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 29 points, or 0.07%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 11.5 points, or 0.19%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 123 points, or 0.56%.
The S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow logged their sixth session of advances out of seven on Wednesday, with the benchmark index notching an intraday record high for the first time in over a month.
Trump’s multi-billion show of support for artificial intelligence infrastructure, along with Netflix’s (NASDAQ: NFLX) strong results, provided the latest tailwind for markets, which had been recovering since last week after data showed underlying inflation was cooling despite robust economic activity.
In premarket trading, AI darlings Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) dropped 1.7% and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) dipped 0.7%, while chip stocks such as Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) and Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) slipped 1.1% each.
Uncertainty about Trump’s trade plans prevailed as he said tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, China, and the European Union could be announced on February 1, although analysts expect April 1 to be the date when major tariff plans will be unveiled.
All eyes will be on Trump’s virtual appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos at 11:00 a.m. ET.
“One new area of interest may be the international tax code, where he could potentially tariff (countries) trying to enact the (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s) Global Minimum Tax – clearly something on the mind of his tech industry sponsors,” said analysts at ING Bank.
Trump pulled the U.S. out of the OECD tax deal on Monday. Tariff imposition could threaten a global trade war, upside price pressures and slow down the Federal Reserve’s pace of monetary policy easing.
Traders expect the central bank to leave interest rates unchanged for the first half of 2025, according to data compiled by LSEG. A moderate rise in longer-dated Treasury yields also limited gains among stocks.
On the economic data front, economists expect a Labor Department report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, to show jobless claims stood at 220,000 in the previous week, which could also reflect some impact from wildfires in California.
Among top movers, GE Aerospace (NYSE: GE) advanced 5.9% after it forecast 2025 profit above estimates on robust aftermarket demand.
Elevance (NYSE: ELV) rose 4.2% after beating estimates for fourth-quarter profit, partly helped by lower-than-expected spending on medical care for its members.
Results from Elevance boosted other health insurers such as UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), Centene (NYSE: CNC), CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), and Humana (NYSE: HUM), rising between 1.4% and 2.6%.
American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL) lost 7.5% after it forecast 2025 profit below expectations.
Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) was down 15% after the videogame publisher cut its forecast for annual bookings, citing weakness in its established soccer franchise.
Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) dropped 3.6% after South Korean rival SK Hynix warned of steeper demand declines in its commodity memory chips used in smartphones and computers.
