A woman is wearing an umbrella as she walks past the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on February 9, 2017 in New York City.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
Futures on major US stock indices rose during the session overnight Wednesday night, suggesting an extension of the S&P 500’s three-day winning streak on Thursday.
Dow futures rose 45 points, while S&P 500 contracts added a similar 0.2%. The Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.4%.
The moves in extended trading came after a relatively calm day on Wall Street, which saw the S&P 500 exceed 0.1% growth and mark a third consecutive day of gains.
The Dow Jones industrial average added 36 points, while the Nasdaq Composite fell below 0.1% amid a decline in Amazon shares during the regular session.
Investors followed a handful of shares, including eBay, PayPal and Qualcomm, in extended transactions after each issued a quarterly earnings report.
Of the three, eBay easily outperformed, with a 9% increase in the market after hours, after beating both the top and bottom lines and issuing a pinker forecast than expected for The first trimester.
PayPal gained nearly 3%, while Qualcomm fell more than 7% after reporting revenue below consensus estimates for the first fiscal quarter.
Apple rose 2% in extended transactions after CNBC reported that it was close to finalizing an agreement with Hyundai-Kia to produce driverless cars. The news that the two could be close to an agreement comes after Hyundai said in January that it is in preliminary talks with the iPhone manufacturer to develop a car.
The macroeconomic outlook remained in the spotlight as traders prepared for the latest iteration of the Department of Labor’s unemployment claims report, which will take place on Thursday at 8:30 AM ET. Economists surveyed by the Dow Jones expect claims for the first time to reach 830,000 for the week ending January 30.
If the requests were to meet expectations, this would be a slight reduction from the previous week’s 847,000 initial claims.
Economic recovery and market performance have tracked the severity of Covid-19 in the US, with some strategists saying the launch of vaccines could lead to higher interest rates, if not higher than cyclical or banking performance.
“Feelings about the Covid vaccine are still very low. This will improve as investors understand that vaccines will give you either 1) immunity or 2) mild reaction (low severity),” Evercore ISI strategist Dennis DeBusschere wrote on Wednesday.
“As investors and society at large realize that low severity is really important, the sentiment about the vaccine will improve and [Treasury] yields will have another larger gap, “he added.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury benchmark rose on Wednesday by about 3 basis points on Wednesday to 1.14%.