S&P 500 futures experienced an uptick early Thursday, following a modest rally in technology stocks that propelled the index to new all-time highs. S&P futures advanced by 0.3%, while Nasdaq 100 futures increased by 0.2%. Futures associated with the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 340 points, representing a 0.7% rise. Shares of Cisco Systems experienced a notable increase of 19% in after-hours trading following the release of third-quarter results and guidance that surpassed Wall Street’s expectations, alongside the announcement of a reduction of nearly 4,000 jobs. Conversely, shares of Doximity experienced an 18% decline following the company’s revenue guidance for the current quarter and full year, which did not meet expectations, in addition to a miss in fourth-quarter earnings.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite achieved new intraday and closing records during Wednesday’s regular session. The broad market index increased by 0.58%, whereas the tech-heavy Nasdaq experienced a rise of 1.2%. The Dow deviated from the prevailing trend, declining by 67.36 points, equivalent to 0.14%. Investors considered yet another inflation report that exceeded expectations — April’s producer price index, which increased by 1.4%, marking the largest monthly rise since March 2022 and significantly surpassing economists’ forecasts. Despite concerns regarding elevated energy prices impacting various sectors, technology stocks, especially semiconductor companies such as Nvidia and Micron Technology, propelled the market rally on Wednesday.
The increase in technology equities occurred as Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, accompanied U.S. President Donald Trump on his visit to engage with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Looking ahead, investor Peter Mallouk posits that chipmakers could potentially experience further gains from this point onward. “This has been, for the most part, a technology-driven extended bull market … This growth can be attributed to anticipated earnings. “It’s not really a speculative bubble,” stated the CEO of Creative Planning during an appearance on Wednesday afternoon.
“I think the chipmakers are actually undervalued as a group, because that’s a mega trend … It seems like we’ve got so much demand ahead of the supply trying to meet it that it’s got a lot of room to run.” Honda Motor, Yeti, Viking Holdings, Klarna, Bullish, and Versant Media are scheduled to announce their earnings prior to the opening bell on Thursday. Market participants will be attentive to the forthcoming data on April’s retail sales and the export and import price index, in addition to the initial jobless claims figures for the week ending May 9. In the interim, John Williams, president and CEO of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, is set to moderate a discussion on Thursday afternoon.