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Gains in megacap stocks in premarket trading kept the Nasdaq
futures higher, while those tied to the S&P 500 remained
subdued.
Wall Street managed to eke out some gains on Wednesday as all
three indexes oscillated between modest gains and losses
throughout the session, but finished higher for the day. All the
indexes are on course for monthly, quarterly, and annual gains.
Focus will now be on the S&P 500. A closing above the January
record close of 4796.56 would confirm the bellwether index
entered a bull market after it hit the bear market closing
trough in October 2022.
Traders will be closely monitoring the weekly jobless claims due
at 8:30 a.m. ET as it is the last catalyst to influence the
direction of markets before the end of 2023.
Optimism around early rate cuts with a possible soft landing for
the American economy next year, and the artificial intelligence
frenzy powered a rally in U.S. stocks in 2023, but fears of the
economy slowing more sharply still persist as the full effect of
higher borrowing costs filters through.
"Goldilocks is being counted on to make an appearance next year,
with inflation cooling but the US economy staying warm enough,
though there is still a risk that the bears return to prowl
again," said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets,
Hargreaves Lansdown.
Money markets have priced in an 86% probability that
policymakers will reduce the Fed funds target rate by at least
25 basis points at the conclusion of their March policy meeting,
according to CME's FedWatch tool.
At 6:13 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 49 points, or 0.13%, S&P
500 e-minis were up 0.75 points, or 0.02%, and Nasdaq 100
e-minis were up 37.75 points, or 0.22%.
Among individual stocks, U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies
rose in premarket trading as China's blue-chip stocks staged
their biggest jump in five months on Thursday on strong foreign
inflows.
Shares of Alibaba Holdings, PDD Holdings and JD.Com Inc advanced
between 1.4% and 3.7%.
(Reporting by Shubham Batra and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in
Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
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