Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
New York Stock Exchange
Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average The gains came Thursday morning after stock indexes ended a four-day winning streak.
Dow Futures It rose 135 points, or 0.32%, S&P 500 Futures It rose 0.77%. Nasdaq 100 Futures It increased by 1.5% Micron Technology.
The chipmaker's shares rose 14% in after-hours trading after it gave a strong outlook for its current-quarter earnings. Micron's fourth-quarter results also beat analysts' expectations. Semiconductor stocks Applied Materials and Lam Research followed suit, each rising 4%.
In Wednesday's regular session, S&P 500 and Dow Stock indexes closed lower from their all-time highs, with the market average down 0.19% and the blue-chip average down 0.70%. Both indexes had hit all-time highs earlier in the day. Nasdaq Composite Index It bucked the trend with a 0.04% increase.
Tom Lee, co-founder and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, said some of Wednesday's volatility was due to the upcoming presidential election.
“It's kind of a coin toss as to what the stock market will do over the next month, and that's what we're looking at, because there have been some position adjustments and we're now looking at 40 days until the election,” he said on CNBC's “Closing Bell” on Wednesday afternoon. [of investors] “They don't want to put capital until after Election Day. I don't think it matters who wins. They just want the election to be over.”
Despite Wednesday's declines, the three major stock indexes are still on an upward trend through the end of September.
The next potential trigger for traders is the release of weekly jobless claims on Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect 223,000 new claims to be filed for the week ending Sept. 21. Final second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures are also due in the morning.
Several Federal Reserve officials, including Chairman Jerome Powell and New York Fed President John Williams, are also scheduled to speak Thursday.
CarMax and Accenture The financial results are scheduled to be announced before the market opens, and then Costco Wholesale in the afternoon.
