U.S. stock futures were flat Wednesday after a sharp decline in the Nasdaq Composite during the previous session, while traders awaited the Federal Reserve’s release of its policy meeting from earlier this month.
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Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell just 12 points, or less than 0.1%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures traded marginally higher.
Nordstrom shares jumped more than 9% in extended trading after the retailer surpassed sales expectations and raised its full-year outlook. The retailer experienced a surge in demand from shoppers refreshing their closets for “long-awaited occasions.”
Homebuilder Toll Brothers also posted quarterly results that beat analyst expectations, sending the stock up more than 3% in the premarket.
Wednesday’s moves came after downbeat session for the Nasdaq, which tumbled following a warning of slowing growth from social media company Snap that hurt the tech-heavy index.
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The tech-heavy composite fell 2.4% on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 slid 0.8%. The Dow rose by 0.2% in a late-day reversal, despite falling as much as 1.6% earlier in the session.
Snap’s warning dinged other social media and tech stocks, including Facebook parent Meta, Twitter, and Google parent Alphabet.
“It tells me how much technology and comm services are still over-owned, right, because they’re the ones that are getting hit the hardest, and for good reason. Snap was really a big surprise for just about everybody,” Stephanie Link, chief investment strategist and portfolio manager at Hightower, said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.”
“I think that we’re in just really challenging times. I’ve been saying we’re going to be in a choppy environment all year long because there are so many unknowns,” she continued.
Traders will continue to parse through earnings reports this week to see how companies are handling inflationary pressures. Dick’s Sporting Goods is expected to report earnings Wednesday before the bell. Snowflake and Nvidia are set to post quarterly reports after the bell.
On the economic front, investors are awaiting the latest meeting minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee. At the May 4 meeting, the Fed hiked rates by half a percentage point, with Chair Jerome Powell saying that inflation is “much too high and we understand the hardship it is causing. We’re moving expeditiously to bring it back down.”