Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on March 12, 2025 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
S&P 500 futures were little changed Wednesday evening after the index posted a winning session in what has been a rocky week.
Futures tied to the broad market index slipped less than 0.1%, while futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 19 points, or 0.05%. Nasdaq 100 futures inched down 0.1%.
In extended trading, Intel popped more than 11% after the company said it had appointed Lip-Bu Tan as its new CEO. Adobe slipped roughly 4% after forecasting weaker-than-expected earnings in the fiscal second quarter.
In Wednesday’s regular trading, beleaguered tech stocks caught a bid as investors snapped up shares, lifting the Nasdaq Composite to a 1.2% gain and carrying the S&P 500 to a 0.5% advance. The tech sector was the top performer in the session, up nearly 1.6% as Nvidia and Palantir Technologies surged. The 30-stock Dow was an outlier, however, notching a third straight losing day and falling 0.2%.
The February consumer price index — a wide-ranging measure of costs across the U.S. economy — came in softer than expected. Headline inflation rose 0.2% from the prior month and 2.8% on an annual basis.
The results may have eased traders’ concerns about the direction of the economy and the impact tariffs could have on inflation. Indeed, President Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs went into effect on Wednesday, and Canada slapped a 25% retaliatory levy on more than $20 billion of U.S. goods.
Though market strategists have been watching for a technical bounce after recent sell off, some say the latest inflation print likely isn’t enough to lead to a sizable rebound. Concerns over Trump’s trade policies remain a key hangover on investor sentiment, and they throw into question how the Federal Reserve may proceed on interest rates.
“We still believe the next Fed rate move is lower, but it is hard to have high confidence with the impact of tariffs still uncertain,” said Scott Helfstein, Global X’s head of investment strategy. “The key question is whether tariffs will have a greater impact on growth or prices. In recent weeks, the rates market has signaled that weaker growth is the bigger concern with three cuts now being priced for this year.”
Week to date, all three major averages are on pace for steep declines. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are on track for losses of about 3%. The Dow is off 3.4% in the period, heading for its worst week since March 2023. The broad market index briefly dipped into correction territory on Tuesday, down 10% from a record set in February.
A couple of key economic reports are due on Thursday, with weekly jobless claims and the February producer price index on deck.