US Stocks On Track For Mixed Start As Nasdaq Futures Sag Yet Again Amid Big Tech Woes; Traders Look Ahead To Q3 GDP Data, Apple, Amazon Earnings

Trading in the U.S. index futures points to a mixed opening by Wall Street stocks on Thursday, as tech earnings continue to disappoint.

On Wednesday, the major averages ended mostly lower, with the Dow Industrials ending marginally higher, although well off the session’s high. Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG and Microsoft Corp. MSFT fell sharply in reaction to their quarterly results, dragging the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lower.

Among the sectors, communication services, IT and consumer discretionary stocks fell the most, while energy and defensive healthcare stocks found buying interest. Traders reacted to a mixed batch of earnings data and a report showing a sharp decline in new home sales for September. Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank, said falling residential investment will likely subtract half a percentage point from real GDP in 2023.

Here’s a peek into index futures trading:

In premarket trading on Thursday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY rose 0.05% to $382.22, while the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ fell 0.48% to $276.60, according to Benzinga Pro data.

On the economic front, the Labor Department will release its jobless claims report for the week ended Oct. 22 at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect the number of individuals claiming unemployment benefits to edge up from 214,000 in the previous week to 220,000.

See Also: Can Apple Weather Industry-Wide Softness And Lift Markets As It Reports Q4 Result Today?

Around the same time, the Bureau of Economic Analysis is scheduled to release the advance third-quarter GDP report. The consensus estimate calls for a rebound in the GDP growth to 2.4% from a negative 0.6% growth in the second quarter. Traders may also sift through the report to gain insights into the health of consumer spending and inflation.

The Commerce Department will release the durable goods orders report for September, also at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

The Treasury will auction 4-week and 8-week treasury bills at 11:30 a.m. ET and 7-year notes at 1 p.m. EDT.

Stocks In Focus:

• Meta slumped about 20% in premarket trading after the social media giant reported worse-than-expected bottom-line results and issued weak fourth-quarter guidance.
• Ford Motor Company F fell after it reported an earnings miss, and adjusted its full-year adjusted EBIT guidance to the low end of its previously provided range.
• ServiceNow Inc. NOW took off as traders reacted positively to the cloud computing software provider’s quarterly results.
• Teladoc Health Inc. TDOC gained about 9% on earnings results. Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV BUD climbed over 7% after the brewer raised its forecast for the year.
• U.K. oil giants BP Plc. BP and Shell Plc. SHEL gained about 3% in reaction to their earnings reports.
• Twitter Inc. TWTR added over 1% amid expectations that Elon Musk will get the deal done by Friday.
• Caterpillar Inc. CAT, Comcast Corp. CMCSA, Hertz Global Holdings Inc. HTZ, McDonald’s Corp. MCD, Mastercard Inc. MA and Merck & Co Inc. MRK are among the noteworthy company due to release their quarterly results ahead of the market open.
• Apple Inc. APPL, Amazon Inc. AMZN, US Steel Corp. X, T-Mobile US Inc. TMUS, Pinterest Inc. PINS and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. VRTX are scheduled to report after the market closes.

Commodities, Other Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil futures rose for a third straight session, with the WTI grade crude oil up moderately at $88+ level.

The major Asia-Pacific markets mostly advanced on Thursday, although the Japanese, Chinese and Malaysian markets came under selling pressure. European stocks were mixed ahead of the European Central Bank’s rate decision due at 8:15 a.m. EDT. Most economists expect the bank to announce a 75-basis-point increment to the key policy rate.

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