Stock market futures were little changed on Thursday morning as Wall Street sought to stabilize following several dramatic swings in recent days.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 17 points, or about 0.05%. S&P 500 futures slipped 0.12%, while Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.1%.
The move in futures comes after stocks were unable to hold an early rally on Wednesday, fueling concerns that the factors that caused Monday’s sell-off haven’t gone away. The S&P 500 fell 0.77% and the Nasdaq Composite sank 1.05%. The 30-stock Dow shed about 234 points, or 0.60%.
All three averages have now declined in four of the past five sessions.
The recent jolt of volatility into the market could be a preview of the rest of the year, said Joseph Ferrara, investment strategist at Gateway Investment Advisers. Ferrara told CNBC on Wednesday that economic concerns, geopolitical conflict and the looming November elections could keep investors on edge in the coming months.
“Given kind of all of that and more — there’s the known and then the unknown — I think investors should be positioning their portfolio, maybe not defensively, but prepared for elevated levels of volatility between now and the end of the year,” Ferrara said. Gateway is an affiliate of Natixis.
One of the issues blamed for Monday’s steep market sell-off was Friday’s jobs report, which showed slowing employment growth. As a result, traders might be paying even closer attention to Thursday’s weekly jobless claims, searching for a potential rise in layoffs.
“I think investors are still very much trying to figure out the state of the U.S. economy, the financial conditions of companies. I think the consumer is going to be driving a lot of headlines between now and the end of the year,” Ferrara said.
Corporate earnings could also be a major factor in market moves on Thursday. Warner Bros. Discovery and Bumble were each sliding in extended trading after reporting soft second-quarter revenue results.
Companies set to report earnings on Thursday morning include Eli Lilly and Under Armour.
