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Stock futures were mixed as fourth-quarter and October trading was set to begin Thursday, with rising Treasury yields and oil prices weighing on Dow Jones Industrial Average futures.
Dow futures pointed down 0.3% in recent trading, while Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 futures were up 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively.
Yesterday, the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite advanced on the last trading session of the third quarter after the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge came in lighter than expected, but the blue-chip Dow and benchmark S&P 500 pulled back. The Dow and S&P 500 finished lower and the Nasdaq higher for September; for the quarter, the Dow fell but the Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose.
With global bond yields surging, the 10-year Treasury yield—which serves as a benchmark for a wide range of interest rates, including those for mortgages, corporate bonds, and other loans—hit a fresh 24-year high of nearly 5.35% early Thursday. The yield recently was around 5.32%, up nearly three basis points from Wednesday’s close.
Oil prices gained Thursday after Reuters reported that Chinese refiners suspended October fuel exports in order to prioritize domestic supplies. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude futures were 2.1% higher at $92.30 a barrel in recent trading, while front-month Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, rose 2.6% to $100.60.
Shares of Magnificent Seven mega-cap tech firm Alphabet (GOOGL) rose 2.5% before the bell after the Google parent unveiled Gemini 4 Argon, its most advanced AI model. Meta Platforms (META) shares ticked higher a day after the Facebook parent was the only member of the septet to close lower. The Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS) pointed up nearly 1%.
Memory stocks and other AI-related companies gained before the bell. Roundhill’s Memory ETF (DRAM) and the broader iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) were up about 1.5% each, with digital storage firms Seagate Technology (STX), Sandisk (SNDK), and Western Digital (WDC) all rising.
Micron Technology (MU) slipped less than 1% even though the firm posted better-than-expected results and issued a rosy outlook. Accenture (ACN) was set to issue its earnings report before the bell, while Nike (NKE) was slated to do so after markets close today.
Bitcoin traded around $83,600, little changed over the past 24 hours. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, rose 0.5% to 101.98. Gold futures slipped 0.1% to $4,180 an ounce.
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