U.S. stock futures declined on Thursday after ending higher on Wednesday. Futures of major benchmark indices were trading lower.
President Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Brazil, escalating the trade tensions between the two nations. This was followed by a slew of letters posted on his Truth Social account to Japan, South Korea, and other countries, with a deadline of making a deal by Aug. 1.
Trump also urged the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by 3%, while June’s Fed minutes were awash with words “uncertain” and “uncertainty,” over the tariffs.
The 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.35% and the two-year bond was at 3.85%. The CME Group's FedWatch tool’s projections show markets pricing a 93.3% likelihood of the Federal Reserve keeping the current interest rates unchanged in its July meeting.
| Futures | Change (+/-) |
| Dow Jones | -0.23% |
| S&P 500 | -0.17% |
| Nasdaq 100 | -0.16% |
| Russell 2000 | -0.15% |
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, were lower in premarket on Thursday. The SPY was down 0.13% at $623.24, while the QQQ declined 0.086% to $555.77, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Cues From Last Session:
Information technology, utilities, and communication services stocks led the gains on Wednesday, driving U.S. stocks higher.
Investors largely overlooked fresh trade uncertainty, encouraged by the White House’s delay of new tariffs to Aug. 1st and renewed hopes for negotiations.
In contrast, energy and consumer staples stocks bucked the broader market trend, ending the session in the red.
Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) once again dominated headlines, reaching a staggering $4 trillion market capitalization and cementing its position as the world’s most valuable company. It plans to introduce a new AI chip specifically for the Chinese market as early as September.
On the economic data front, U.S. wholesale inventories saw a 0.3% month-over-month decline in May, falling to $905.5 billion, which was consistent with preliminary estimates and followed a 0.1% increase in the prior month.
| Index | Performance (+/-) | Value |
| Nasdaq Composite | 0.94% | 20,611.34 |
| S&P 500 | 0.61% | 6,263.26 |
| Dow Jones | 0.49% | 44,458.30 |
| Russell 2000 | 1.07% | 2,252.49 |
Insights From Analysts:
The senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo, Scott Wren, highlighted that the resurfaced tariff negotiations after a 90-day pause have again started to impact global stock and bond markets.
He said that “Some potentially serious trade frictions were just around the corner, ready to rear their ugly heads and impact global stock and bond markets.”
Wren highlighted that the first 90-day pause of largely reciprocal tariffs with a number of important trading partners was due to expire today, July 9. But as the financial markets woke up and got ready to go on Monday morning, the headlines hit the newswires that the pause was being pushed back to Aug. 1, and letters were going out to various trading partners encouraging them to come to an agreement with the U.S. by this new date.
“The upcoming expiration of the 90-day tariff pause on Aug. 12 with China are just a big reminder that we are still in the early stages of hammering out what U.S. trade relationships with our largest global trade partners will be,” he said.
Granted, the magnitude of implementation has been uneven and inconsistent in recent months, Wren said that “U.S. consumers have yet to see the full effect of tariffs at this point.”
“Consumers are in many cases buying goods that were inventoried by sellers prior to the application of tariffs. Once those inventories are depleted and are replaced with goods that are subject to tariffs, we would expect to see goods inflation increase into the end of this year and in the early months of 2026,” he said.
Wren added that “Rising inflation is likely to increase market worries as market consensus calls for two rate cuts in 2025.”
Meanwhile, talking about inflation, Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates stated that “I am expecting favorable inflation reports and for retail sales to have picked up a bit from May's slow pace.”
“Economic activity appears to be picking up, so both business and consumer sentiment should be rising,” he added.
See Also: How to Trade Futures
Upcoming Economic Data
Here’s what investors will keep an eye on Thursday:
- Initial jobless claims data for the week ended July 5 will all be out by 8:30 a.m. ET.
- St Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem will speak at 10:00 a.m., and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly will speak at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Stocks In Focus:
- Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) rose 0.71% in premarket on Thursday after scaling a record market capitalization of over $4 trillion on Wednesday.
- WK Kellogg Co. (NYSE:KLG) zoomed 52.86% on a report that Ferrero is nearing an agreement to buy the breakfast food company for about $3 billion.
- Klotho Neurosciences Inc. (NASDAQ:KLTO) surged 54.74% as the company was granted FDA Orphan Drug designation for KLTO-202 for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
- Creative Medical Technology Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:CELZ) tumbled 27% as it received a notice of allowance for a U.S. patent titled "Treatment Of Heart Failure And/Or Post Infarct Pathological Remodeling By Ex Vivo Reprogrammed Immune Cells."
- Methode Electronics Inc. (NYSE:MEI) dropped 14.29% after the company reported a fourth-quarter adjusted EPS miss.
- AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) was 0.60% higher after posting better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter, while sales missed estimates. The company raised its FY2026 adjusted EPS guidance from $5.50-$6.10 to $5.75-$6.25.
- Kraft Heinz Co. (NASDAQ:KHC) was up 0.53% after it agreed to sell its infant and specialty food business in Italy to NewPrinces S.p.A.
- Conagra Brands Inc. (NYSE:CAG) was up 0.79% as analysts expect it to report earnings of 58 cents per share on revenue of $2.83 billion before the opening bell.
- Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE:DAL) was 0.24% lower as it is expected to report earnings before the market opens. Analysts estimate earnings of $2.05 per share on revenue of $15.45 billion.
- Helen of Troy Ltd. (NASDAQ:HELE) advanced 1.29% as analysts expect it to report earnings of 90 cents per share on revenue of $398.20 million before the opening bell.
Commodities, Gold, And Global Equity Markets:
Crude oil futures were trading lower in the early New York session by 0.53% to hover around $68.01 per barrel.
Gold Spot US Dollar rose 0.35% to hover around $3,325.28 per ounce. Its last record high stood at $3,500.33 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was lower by 0.16% at the 97.3950 level.
Asian markets ended mostly higher on Thursday, except India's S&P BSE Sensex and Japan's Nikkei 225 indices. Meanwhile, South Korea's Kospi, Hong Kong's Hang Seng, Australia's ASX 200, and China’s CSI 300 indices rose. European markets were higher in early trade.
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