Following a down session that saw the Dow, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq all decline, stocks are striving for a rebound on Thursday. On Thursday, stock futures contracts linked to the Dow Jones rose 0.5%, while those linked to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose 0.7% and 1.1%, respectively, as investors digested a slew of earnings reports and awaited US economic data. Weekly jobless claims were due out at 8:30 a.m. ET. Latest US jobless claims shows a rise from 9-Month low. In the week ending February 4, the number of Americans requesting unemployment benefits increased to 196000 from the previous week’s nine-month low of 183000 and above market estimates of 190000. However, the most recent data indicated that the job market was still tight, which would increase inflationary pressure in the biggest economy in the world.
Investors are still waiting for the Federal Reserve to announce its next course of action, especially now that Chairman Jerome Powell is mentioning “disinflationary” elements in the economy.
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Walt Disney shares jumped more than 6% in premarket trading after the company beat earnings estimates and announced a restructuring plan that includes job cuts and cost savings. PepsiCo gained about 1.5% after the soda maker reported quarterly results that pleasantly surprised investors.
Investors are now waiting to study the weekly jobless claims data released today to see how far the US Federal Reserve will go with interest rate hikes. This upward momentum occurred despite hawkish remarks from several Fed policymakers about how far interest rates must rise.
Meanwhile, the ChatGpt war between companies is heating up. Investors didn’t seem to enjoy Google’s demonstration of its Bard artificial intelligence chatbot on Wednesday. During the trading session, Alphabet’s stock declined 7%. Alphabet stock is up by 0.35% and Microsoft has gained 1.81% in the pre market session on Thursday.