Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., April 23, 2026.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
U.S. stock futures were little changed on Thursday night after President Donald Trump said that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend their ceasefire by three weeks.
S&P 500 futures were trading around flat, while Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.4%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 47 points, or 0.1%.
After hours, shares of Intel soared 19%. The chipmaker posted first-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street’s expectations and shared an upbeat forecast for its current quarter.
Both the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had scored new intraday highs on Thursday, but ultimately ended the session in the red, respectively losing 0.4% and 0.9%. The Nasdaq’s decline meant that the index suffered its worst daily performance in nearly a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 180 points, or 0.4%.
Trump’s announcement of an extension to the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire injected much-needed optimism into the market. It followed a meeting at the White House with top U.S. officials, Trump said.
“The Meeting went very well!” The president wrote in a Truth Social post.
“The United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah,” he added, referencing the Iran-backed militia group.
Amid a tenuous truce, investors continued to look for signs that a peace deal is in the works. The Middle East conflict has evolved into a naval standoff over the Strait of Hormuz as both countries have seized commercial ships. Trump said in a Thursday Truth Social post that he had ordered the U.S. Navy to “shoot and kill any boat” that is laying mines in the strait.
Thursday’s reversal from all-time highs showed that headlines coming from the Middle East still can sway the market, even as traders attempt to look past the conflict and focus on corporate earnings reports.
Software stocks had tumbled on Thursday, while semiconductor names pulled ahead. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) posted its 17th positive session in a row.
Cameron Dawson, chief investment officer at NewEdge Wealth, said she expects the market’s leadership to remain constricted.
“This market continues to get narrower and narrower. And once, it was a story of all ‘Mag Seven’ doing well. Now it’s really just a story of semiconductors doing well,” she said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Thursday afternoon. “We are having the most cyclical sector in the world — being semiconductors — experiencing super normal growth. The stocks will deliver 100% earnings growth this year. The question is, how do you value that?”
Dawson added: “The real question is how the market digests the super normal growth and if it thinks it can actually continue.”
Procter & Gamble, Norfolk Southern, Charter Communications and SLB will report earnings before Friday’s opening bell. Traders will also watch for April’s final reading of the Michigan Sentiment index.