Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
NYSE
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed on Wednesday night after the index broke a four-day win streak.
Dow futures fell by 28 points, or 0.7%. S&P 500 futures were unchanged. Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.21%, boosted higher by shares of Micron Technology.
The semiconductor manufacturer was trading 14% higher in Wednesday’s extended trading session after issuing strong guidance for the current quarter. Results for its fiscal fourth quarter also topped analysts’ estimates. Fellow semiconductor-linked stocks Applied Materials and Lam Research both rose 4% in sympathy.
In regular trading, both the S&P 500 and the Dow retreated from their records to close lower. The broad market benchmark lost 0.19%, while the blue-chip average sank 0.70%. Both indexes had hit fresh all-time highs earlier in the session. The Nasdaq Composite bucked the trend by inching up 0.04%.
Tom Lee, co-founder and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, pinned some of Wednesday’s volatility on the upcoming presidential election.
“What stocks do in the next month is a bit of a coin flip, and I think that’s what we’re seeing, because there’s some repositioning that took place and also we’re now thinking about the 40 days into the election,” he said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Wednesday afternoon. “A lot [of investors] don’t want to commit capital until after Election Day. I don’t think it matters who wins; they just want to get that event behind them.”
Despite Wednesday’s losses, all three major averages are still tracking to end September higher.
The next potential catalyst awaiting traders is the weekly jobless claims report, which is due Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones anticipate 223,000 initial unemployment claims were filed for the week ending Sept. 21. The final reading of second-quarter gross domestic product is also out in the morning.
Several Federal Reserve officials are also slated to speak on Thursday, including Chair Jerome Powell and New York Fed President John Williams.
CarMax and Accenture are set to report earnings before the opening bell, followed by Costco Wholesale in the afternoon.
