Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on August 20, 2024 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Stock futures were marginally higher Thursday as investors look ahead to commentary from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell expected later this week.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 27 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.1% along with Nasdaq-100 futures.
Software company Snowflake dropped 10% even after it beat quarterly expectations and slightly raised its full-year product revenue guidance. Urban Outfitters also slid more than 10% after the retailer’s same-store sales in the second quarter disappointed analysts.
Traders are turning their attention to Powell’s expected speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on Friday, hoping for further insight into rate policy. Traders are currently pricing in a 100% chance of a rate cut next month, per the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, but they are divided when it comes to how large the reduction will be.
“The volatility from the past month has settled as macro fears subside, expectations were reset, and investors used the weakness as an opportunity to add to risk exposure. The next catalyst for markets is Fed data … this likely results in a wait-and-see approach until Friday,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide.
Wall Street is coming off a winning session, as newly released minutes from the Fed’s July gathering indicated “the vast majority” of participants at the central bank’s meeting said it would “likely” be appropriate to lower the key interest rate at September meeting — if data continues to come in as expected.
Investors seemed to cheer the results, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite posting their ninth winning session of the last 10. The S&P 500’s advance brought it less than 1% away from its closing record. The 30-stock Dow posted its sixth positive day out of the last seven.