U.S. stock futures showed a mixed picture on Thursday, with optimism about a potential U.S.-EU trade agreement helping keep hopes for fresh record highs alive, while investors digested earnings reports from tech heavyweights Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.4%, weighed down by a post-earnings decline in IBM (NYSE:IBM), as the Dow came close to achieving its first record closing high of the year. Conversely, Nasdaq 100 futures edged up around 0.3%, and S&P 500 futures remained mostly flat following another record closing on the index.
Alphabet exceeded Wall Street’s second-quarter profit expectations and reaffirmed its aggressive investment in artificial intelligence. Shares of the Google parent rose during premarket trading, along with other AI-related stocks such as Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), lending support to tech-heavy indexes. Meanwhile, Tesla shares dropped after the electric vehicle maker missed earnings estimates, faced continued sluggish sales in Europe, and saw CEO Elon Musk warn of “rough quarters” ahead due to the loss of tax credits under President Trump’s budget legislation.
Earnings reports from Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) are set to be released later Thursday, continuing the earnings season momentum.
Positive sentiment around trade deals remained strong, fueled by the recent U.S.-Japan agreement that helped push the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite to new record highs on Wednesday.
Reports indicate the EU and U.S. are nearing a deal that would set tariffs on most European imports at 15%, down from the previously threatened 30%. According to media sources, this rate could become the new baseline for reciprocal tariffs scheduled to begin on August 1, following President Trump’s remarks on Wednesday. Earlier, Trump had imposed a 10% baseline tariff rate on several countries as part of his broad April tariff actions.
“We’ll have a straight, simple tariff of anywhere between 15% and 50%,” he said during an AI summit. “A couple of — we have 50 because we haven’t been getting along with those countries too well.”
On the economic calendar, investors will be closely watching a slew of data releases—including weekly initial jobless claims, July’s U.S. manufacturing and services activity, and new home sales—to better gauge interest rate expectations ahead of the Federal Reserve’s July meeting.
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