Stock futures wavered between slight gains and losses Wednesday morning as the market looks to rebound from a sluggish performance yesterday after hitting all-time highs.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.1% recently, while those linked to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slipped 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively. The benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite each fell slightly on Tuesday after closing at record levels the previous two sessions, while the Dow finished higher yesterday to move closer to a new high of its own.
Market participants this morning were digesting private sector payrolls data from ADP that showed a surprising decline of 33,000 jobs in June, compared to the gain of about 100,000 that economists had estimated. The weak reading comes ahead of the highly anticipated release Thursday morning of the June jobs report from the Labor Department. The economic reports are being closely monitored by investors as the Federal Reserve has said it needs to see more data on how tariffs are affecting the economy before cutting interest rates.
Investors are also keeping close tabs on developments in Washington D.C. as the House of Representatives gets set to debate the massive tax and spending bill that was narrowly approved in the Senate yesterday. Trade talks are also in focus ahead of the July 9 deadline that President Donald Trump has set for huge tariffs to be re-imposed if the U.S. hasn’t reached agreements with leading trade partners.
Tesla (TSLA) shares were up 0.5% in premarket trading, ahead of the expected release this morning of the EV maker’s second quarter deliveries numbers. The stock dropped more than 5% on Tuesday as a feud between Elon Musk and Trump heated up again, with the Tesla CEO criticizing the budget bill and the president saying that Musk’s businesses have benefitted excessively from government subsidies.
Apple (AAPL) shares rose more than 1% before the bell, after gaining ground for the third straight day on Tuesday to finish at a six-week high. Other mega-cap technology stocks were lower across the board, led by a decline of more than 1% for AI chip giant Nvidia (NVDA). Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), Meta Platforms (META) and Broadcom (AVGO) also lost ground.
Shares of big banks were gaining ground this morning as several boosted dividends and share buybacks after the results of the Fed’s annual stress test, released late last week, showed that major U.S. financial institutions could weather a severe recession. Shares of JPMorgan (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) all rose less than 1%.
Centene (CNC) shares plunged 30% after the health insurer pulled its full-year earnings forecast. Other insurance stocks were also under pressure this morning.
Crypto-related stocks moved higher as the price of bitcoin jumped to $107,300 in recent trading, up from an overnight low of $105,100. Shares of major bitcoin buyers Strategy (MSTR) and MARA Holdings (MARA) were each up more than 2%.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects borrowing costs on all sorts of loans, notably mortgages, was at 4.29%, up from yesterday’s close of 4.25%. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the performance of the dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, rose 0.2% to 96.96, after hitting its weakest levels since early 2022 on Tuesday.
West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, were up 1.2% to $66.25 per barrel, while gold futures held steady at around $3,350 an ounce.