United States stock futures traded flat on Wednesday evening (Thursday AEST), following a four-day losing streak for the S&P 500 as weakness in technology shares continued to pressure the broader market.
By 9:10 am AEST (11:10 pm GMT), futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100 were all down less than 0.1%.
Big Tech and semiconductor stocks extended losses from earlier in the week. Amazon, Apple and Alphabet each slipped more than 1%. Broadcom declined 1.3%, while Intel tumbled 7%. Nvidia briefly dropped more than 3% before paring back to close just 0.1% lower.
Investors remain focused on the Federal Reserve, with Chair Jerome Powell set to deliver a keynote address at the central bank’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole on Friday. Markets are watching closely for clues on the policy outlook.
According to CME Group FedWatch Tool, traders see an 81.9% probability that the Fed will cut interest rates at its next policy meeting in September.
Meanwhile, minutes from the July meeting, released Wednesday, showed officials concerned about both inflation and labour market conditions.
While most agreed it was premature to ease policy, Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman dissented, the first such dual opposition since 1993.
Attention now turns to earnings and fresh economic data. Walmart will report results before Thursday’s opening bell, with Workday set to follow later in the day.
On the macro front, weekly jobless claims and existing home sales figures are also due.
