Stock Futures Little Changed After Major Indexes End Higher for 7th Time in 8 Sessions

Stock futures were little changed Thursday, a day after the three major equities indexes all rose for the seventh time in eight sessions as weak private-sector employment data furthered traders’ belief that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its meeting next week. 

Futures associated with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, benchmark S&P 500, and tech-heavy Nasdaq all were trading within roughly 0.1% of the flat line. The indexes finished up a respective 0.9%, 0.3%, and 0.2% Wednesday, with the Dow adding more than 400 points.

Yesterday, the ADP employment reading for November indicated that private payrolls fell by 32,000 last month when an increase of 40,000 jobs was expected. The report was the last monthly jobs reading for the Fed before its meeting on interest rates. The CME FedWatch tool currently points to a nearly 90% likelihood the Fed will cut rates by a quarter-percentage point, with investors keenly awaiting PCE inflation data tomorrow.

Bitcoin was trading around $93,000, little changed on the day but up sharply after having suffered its worst day since March on Monday, when it closed below $85,500.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note ticked higher to 4.08% from 4.06% at Wednesday’s close. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the performance of the dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, edged lower to 98.77.

WTI crude futures, the U.S. oil benchmark, rose 0.5% to $59.25 per barrel, while gold futures ticked lower to $4,225 per ounce.

In corporate news, shares of Salesforce (CRM) rose nearly 2% in premarket trading after the software giant late Wednesday posted better-than-expected quarterly profit and raised its outlook on the back of growth from its data products and AI offerings.

In other post-earnings stock moves, shares of UiPath (PATH) jumped 8%; Five Below (FIVE) surged 4.5%; Hormel (HRL) rose 4%; Dollar General (DG) advanced 2%; and Snowflake (SNOW) sank 8%. Kroger (KR) also was slated to report results before the bell.

Elsewhere, shares of Meta Platforms (META) rose modestly after the EU announced it was opening an antitrust probe into the Facebook and Instagram parent’s new WhatsApp AI policy. The other Magnificent Seven large-cap technology stocks were slightly higher with the exception of Apple (AAPL), whose shares ticked lower.