Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on March 26, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stock futures inched lower on Thursday night as investors continue to navigate a volatile global trade landscape.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back 63 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures fell 0.2%, while Nasdaq-100 futures declined 0.3%.
Investors parsed fresh quarterly results in extended trading. Shares of clothing retailer Gap pulled back more than 14% after a weaker-than-expected second-quarter outlook, while cosmetics stock Ulta Beauty advanced roughly 8% on strong first-quarter results. Dell Technologies gained about 2% on the heels of strong first-quarter revenue.
Back-and-forth trade news on Thursday capped wider gains for the market, with the major averages closing well off their intraday highs. The Court of International Trade on Wednesday night halted the majority of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, before granting a stay on Thursday afternoon and allowing the duties to remain in place until next week.
The news is the latest dose of uncertainty for what was an already uneasy market that has contended with macroeconomic concern tied to tariffs and worry that the shakeup to U.S. trade policy could cause a recession.
Yet stocks are on the verge of closing out May with strong gains. The S&P 500 has added more than 6% this month, while the Nasdaq Composite has surged 10% in that time. The 30-stock Dow has gained about 4% on the month.
“I think as we head into summer that momentum can continue, [but] then that’s where the hard data that may catch up to the weaker, soft data, could come into play,” Ned Davis Research chief U.S. strategist Ed Clissold told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Thursday. “I think as we move through the second-quarter into the third quarter, there’s still some good momentum in the market.”
For the week, the S&P 500 has advanced about 2%, while the 30-stock Dow is up 1.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq has advanced 2.3%.
Investors will also parse a fresh reading of the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures index, on Friday.