(Reuters) – S&P 500 and Dow Jones futures were little changed on Thursday as investors awaited new data to gauge the strength of the U.S. labor market, while Nasdaq futures rose as gains by artificial intelligence favorite Nvidia boosted optimism about… Technology sector.
A tech rally on Wednesday pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to all-time highs, as a string of weak economic data fueled bets that the Federal Reserve could start easing policy sooner than previously expected.
Big tech stocks were the main driver of the rally, with the technology sector rising nearly 2.6% as Treasury yields fell. Stocks including Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Apple fell between 0.04% and 0.3% in pre-market trading.
However, chip maker Nvidia rose 1.0%, after its market cap surpassed $3 trillion in the previous session which saw it overtake Apple to become the world's second most valuable company.
Gains by Nvidia and other AI-related companies have been the main driver of the recent rally on Wall Street, with the chipmaker accounting for nearly a third of the S&P 500's more than 12% year-to-date gain, even as… In which investors grapple with concerns about higher interest rates for a longer period in the United States.
“The fact that Nvidia is now worth more than Apple…there's a feeling that as long as Nvidia's stock price is going up, investors are happy and all is well in the markets,” said Russ Mold, chief investment officer at AJ Bell. .
On the macro front, May payrolls data on Wednesday indicated an easing of labor market tightness, ahead of the important non-farm payrolls report due on Friday.
Traders now see about a 67% chance of a rate cut in September, according to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's FedWatch tool, and have priced in about two cuts this year, according to data from LSEG.
Forecasters polled by Reuters also expect two cuts, but there is a high risk that the Fed will opt for just one cut or none at all.
Weekly jobless claims data and international trade figures for April are due later on Thursday.
At 5:54 a.m. EST, the Dow Jones e-mini was down 17 points, or 0.04%, the S&P 500 e-mini was down 1.75 points, or 0.03%, and the Nasdaq 100 e-mini was up 8.5 points, or 0.04. %.
Among individual names, Lululemon Athletica jumped 7.1% after beating first-quarter earnings and revenue expectations on Wednesday, as its China business helped offset a slowdown in North America.
Meanwhile, Victoria's Secret lost 2.5% after reporting a decline in first-quarter profit and revenue after markets closed on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Lisa Mattakal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
