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Futures: Dow up 0.03%, S&P 500 dips 0.17%, Nasdaq off
0.47%
Jan 23 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were subdued
on Thursday, as investors paused after Wall Street's strong
performance in the previous session and awaited economic data,
more corporate earnings and remarks from President Donald Trump
later in the day.
At 5:20 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 12 points, or
0.03%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 10.25 points, or 0.17%
and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 103.5 points, or 0.47%.
The S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow logged their
sixth session of advances out of seven on Wednesday, with the
benchmark index notching an intraday record high for the first
time in over a month.
Trump's multi-billion show of support for artificial
intelligence infrastructure, along with Netflix's ( NFLX )
strong results, provided the latest tailwind for markets, which
had been recovering since last week after data showed underlying
inflation was cooling despite robust economic activity.
In premarket trading, AI darlings Nvidia ( NVDA ) dropped
1.8% and Microsoft ( MSFT ) dipped 0.7%, while chip stocks such
as Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) and Broadcom ( AVGO ) slipped
0.8% each.
Uncertainty about Trump's trade plans prevailed as he said
tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, China and the European
Union could be announced on Feb. 1, although analysts expect
April 1 to be the date when major tariff plans will be unveiled.
All eyes will be on Trump's appearance at the World Economic
Forum in Davos at 11:00 a.m. ET.
"One new area of interest may be the international tax code,
where he could potentially tariff (countries) trying to enact
the (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's)
Global Minimum Tax - clearly something on the mind of his tech
industry sponsors," said analysts at ING Bank.
Trump pulled the U.S. out of the OECD tax deal on Monday.
Tariff imposition could threaten a global trade war, upside
price pressures and slow down the Federal Reserve's pace of
monetary policy easing.
Traders expect the central bank to leave interest rates
unchanged for the first half of 2025, according to data compiled
by LSEG.. A moderate rise in longer-dated Treasury yields
also limited gains among stocks.
On the economic data front, economists expect a Labor
Department report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, to show jobless claims
stood at 220,000 in the previous week, which could also reflect
some impact from wildfires in California.
Among top movers, Electronic Arts ( EA ) was down 13.7%
after the videogame publisher cut its forecast for annual
bookings, citing weakness in its established soccer franchise.
Alaska Air ( ALK ) rose 3.8% after topping Street estimates
for fourth-quarter profit and forecast a smaller-than-expected
loss for the current quarter.
Quarterly reports from GE Aerospace, American
Airlines ( AAL ) and Union Pacific ( UNP ) among others are due
before markets open.
Micron dropped 3.5% after South Korean rival SK Hynix ( HXSCF )
warned of steeper demand declines in its commodity
memory chips used in smartphones and computers.