U.S. index futures were solidly pointing to a higher open by Wall Street stocks on Thursday, which happens to be the penultimate trading session of the year.
Stocks declined on Wednesday as risk aversion stubbornly held down any potential technical rebound. After opening on a mixed note, the major averages declined steadily in the morning trade before consolidating for a while. Renewed selling emerged in late afternoon trading, dragging the averages further into the red.
With Wednesday's retreat, the Nasdaq Composite dropped to its lowest level since July 2, 2020, and the S&P 500 pulled back to its early-November lows.
| Index | Performance (+/-) | Value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nasdaq Composite | -1.35% | 10,213.29 | |
| S&P 500 Index | -1.20% | 3,783.22 | |
| Dow Industrials | -1.10% | 32,875.71 |
The sell-off seen Wednesday was broad-based, with the technology, energy, material and real estate stocks plunging by the most.
Commenting on the market move, fund manager Louis Navellier said, “On low volume, the market is trying its best to keep its head above water after a disappointing start to the official Santa Claus rally.”
“The market appears to be exhausted, understandably, no longer expecting a large technical rally and just hoping to get to Friday afternoon without any further meaningful losses.”
The market sentiment reflected fears concerning the upcoming year, Navellier suggested. “Most of the year’s major uncertainties; China Covid, the war in Ukraine, tight energy supplies and hawkish central banks, will be waiting for us on the other side,” he said.
Here’s a peek into index futures trading:
| Index | Performance (+/-) | |
|---|---|---|
| Nasdaq 100 Futures | +0.63% | |
| S&P 500 Futures | +0.32% | |
| Dow Futures | +0.18% | |
| R2K Futures | +0.57% |
In premarket trading on Thursday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF TrustSPY rose 0.43% to $378.27, while the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ climbed 0.64% to $261.76, according to Benzinga Pro data.
The economic calendar is light, with only a couple of reports scheduled for the day.
The Labor Department will release its customary weekly jobless claims report at 8:30 a.m. EST. Economists, on average, expect the number of individuals claiming unemployment benefits to climb from 216,000 in the week ended Dec. 17 to 225,000 in the week ended Dec. 24.
The Energy Information Administration is due to release its weekly crude oil inventories report at 11 a.m. EST.
The Treasury will auction 4-week and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. EST and 7-year notes at 1 p.m. EST.
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Stocks In Focus:
- Tesla, Inc. TSLA stock was climbing over 3% in premarket trading, extending its gains from the previous session.
- Most electric vehicle stocks advanced, with Hyzon Motors, Inc. HYZN climbing over 8%, Lucid Group, Inc. LCID rising close to 3% and Rivian Automotive, Inc. RIVN up over 2%.
- Beaten-down tech stocks were also rebounding, led by ASML Holdings N.V. ASML, SAP AG SAP, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited TSM, Nvidia Corp. NVDA, Qualcomm, Inc. QCOM and Amazon, Inc. AMZN.
- Oil stocks BP plc BP, Shell plc SHEL, Exxon Mobil plc XOM, Occidental Petroleum Corp. OXY and Chevron Corp. CVX were all declining.
Commodities, Other Global Markets:
Crude oil futures were down for a third straight day on Thursday, with a barrel of WTI-grade oil dropping 1.79% to $77.55 in the early European session.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield was edging down 0.02% points to 3.867%.
The major Asia-Pacific markets ended Thursday’s session notably lower, dragged by the lackluster close by Wall Street stocks overnight. The Indian, Indonesian and Malaysian markets, however, bucked the downtrend. European stocks were trading on a narrowly mixed note in late morning trading.
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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