Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during afternoon trading on June 03, 2024 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Stock futures are little changed on Tuesday night after the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its best day since June 2023.
Futures tied to the Dow added 29 points, or 0.07%. S&P 500 futures hovered just below the flatline, while Nasdaq 100 futures inched lower by 0.03%.
In after-hours trading, Five Below lost more than 9% after announcing the departure of its chief executive officer and appointment of Kenneth Bull as its new interim president and CEO. J.B. Hunt Transportation Services dipped 2.8% after reporting worse-than-expected second-quarter results, which were pressured by higher insurance expenses and a soft freight market that has impacted over-the-road truck competition.
Stocks are coming off of a strong session as investors’ rotation into areas outside of technology continued.
The 30-stock Dow rallied more than 700 points and closed at an all-time high, while also recording its best session since June 2023. The S&P 500 added 0.64%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended the day just 0.2% higher.
Small-cap stocks have seen a resurgence since last week’s June consumer price index report, with some investors now rotating out of megacap technology and popular artificial intelligence leaders into small caps and cyclical stocks. On Tuesday, the Russell 2000 added more than 3%, notching its fifth straight day of gains. The small-cap index has jumped more than 10% this month.
“The Dow has spent most of the past two years lagging the S&P 500 index, but it has new wind in its sails this summer on the hopes that the market rally will broaden from a narrow set of technology companies into a broader array of companies throughout the economy,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer of Independent Advisor Alliance.
This broadening market rally is underway as traders have become substantially more optimistic on an impending interest rate cut, which should benefit small caps and companies with higher financing costs. Traders now see 100% odds the Federal Reserve will lower rates in September, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Looking ahead to Wednesday, United Airlines, Discover Financial Services, Johnson & Johnson and U.S. Bancorp are some of the names set to release quarterly earnings results. The Fed’s Beige Book will also be released, as will housing starts and building permits data for June.