United States stock futures held steady in overnight trading on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), following a second consecutive session of gains on Wall Street amid strong performances in the technology sector.
By 8:50 am AEST (10:50 pm GMT) Dow Jones Industrial Average futures, S&P 500 futures, and Nasdaq 100 futures were trading within a range of ±0.1%.
In after-hours trading, CrowdStrike Holdings fell 6.3% after issuing softer-than-expected revenue guidance, despite beating market expectations on earnings and revenue.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise gained 4% following better-than-expected results, with earnings per share (EPS) coming in at $0.38 versus $0.33 expected, while revenue was reported at $7.63 billion versus $7.45 billion expected.
Asana tanked 8.1% as the company reported slowing revenue growth, despite earnings and revenue metrics beating market expectations.
Tuesday’s regular session saw the Dow rise over 200 points, or 0.5%, marking its fourth straight day of gains. The S&P 500 advanced 0.6%, closing at fresh three-month highs, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.8%, supported by continued enthusiasm for technology stocks.
Nvidia surged 2.8%, reclaiming its position as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, surpassing Microsoft.
Investor sentiment has improved as the market begins to view recent tariff actions from the White House as largely strategic. President Donald Trump’s recent reversals on tariff announcements, coupled with a federal court ruling last week that temporarily struck down some levies before they were reinstated on appeal, have contributed to a belief that the worst of the trade disruptions may be behind.
This more measured reaction to trade news has prompted some analysts to upgrade their outlooks. Deutsche Bank's chief U.S. equity and global strategist, Binky Chadha, raised his year-end target for the S&P 500, citing potential upside supported by sidelined cash and a more favourable policy backdrop expected later this year.
On the data front, job vacancies in the United States rose more than expected in April. The Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that job openings increased by 191,000 to 7.391 million, according to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS).
Markets had anticipated a decline to 7.1 million openings.
Meanwhile, this week’s economic calendar is packed with key indicators. Investors will be closely monitoring Automatic Data Processing's (ADP) private payrolls report, followed by weekly jobless claims on Thursday and the closely watched May jobs report on Friday.
The Federal Reserve will also release its Beige Book later Wednesday, offering regional insights into business conditions across the country.
Among earnings results, Dollar Tree set to report before the opening bell on Wednesday.
