Markets Eye Modest Gains Amid Mideast Tensions, Mixed Global Data
The Nasdaq inched up 25.18 points (0.1%) to 19,546.27, the S&P 500 edged down 1.85 points or less than a tenth of a perecnt to 5,980.87 and the Dow slipped 44.14 points (0.1%) to 42,171.66.
The major index futures are currently pointing to a modestly higher open for the markets, with the S&P 500 futures up by 0.2%. Stocks may open higher as traders closely monitor the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. The White House is expected to decide within two weeks whether to support Israeli military actions. As the conflict enters its eighth day, both nations continue to exchange missile and drone attacks.
The Philly Fed reported its diffusion index for current general activity remained unchanged in June at -4.0, signaling continued contraction. Economists had expected a slight improvement to -1.0. Looking ahead, future indicators show weaker growth expectations, with the future activity index plunging to 18.3 from 47.2 in May.
The Conference Board will release its report on leading economic indicators in the month of May. The leading economic index is expected to edge down by 0.1% in May after slumping by 1% in April.
Asia-Pacific stocks turned in a mixed performance. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index dipped by 0.2%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped by 1.3% South Korea's Kospi surged by 1.5%. The major European markets have all moved to the upside on the day while the German DAX Index is up by 1.6%, the French CAC 40 Index is up by 1.0% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.5%.
In commodities trading, crude oil futures are edging up $0.16 to $75.30 a barrel after rising $0.30 to $75.14 a barrel on Wednesday. Meanwhile, after inching up $1.20 to $3,408.10 an ounce in the previous session, gold futures are tumbling $44.50 to $3,363.60 an ounce. On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 145.47 yen versus the 145.45 yen it fetched on Thursday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.1524 compared to yesterday's $1.1495.
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Economic Times
27 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Wall Street Week Ahead: AI gains, strong earnings support US stocks as tariff woes linger
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel With more than half of second quarter earnings reported and stocks near record highs, company results have reassured investors about the artificial intelligence trade that has energized Wall Street, even if tariff worries curtailed results in from 297 of the S&P 500 companies as of Thursday, year-on-year earnings growth for the second quarter is now estimated at 9.8%, up from 5.8% estimated growth on July 1, according to LSEG week investors will get a peek at earnings from Dow Jones Industrial Average constituents Disney, McDonald's and Caterpillar, for a look at the broader economy. Strong profit reports for these companies could propel the Dow, trading just shy of its December record high, to a fresh 81% of the companies have beaten analyst expectations on earnings, above the 76% average for the past four quarters."The earnings season has been unambiguously better than expected," Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth in Boston, strength of corporate earnings is particularly reassuring for investors after the pummeling sentiment took in the prior quarter due to the twin threats of tariffs and worries over flagging economic growth."The first quarter was a bit more mixed and you had some questionable economic data ... which I think gave the market some pause," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York."But the second quarter seems to have just been a turnaround," Ghriskey strength of results for names linked to the artificial intelligence trade - the investment thesis that AI will be a transformative force, driving a significant portion of future economic growth and company profits - is particularly heartening, investors and analysts said."Overall it has been mega caps, growth/technology/AI that is driving a lot of the results," Ghriskey said."This is where we want to be exposed in terms of companies ... we're at maximum equity exposures and we're comfortable there."Having boosted the market for several quarters, the trade ran into rough waters at the start of the year as the emergence of Chinese-founded artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek rattled investors, stoking concerns over heightened competition that could disrupt the dominance of established tech giants at the heart of the AI trade, including results from Microsoft and Meta Platforms reassured investors that massive bets on AI are paying over AI demand appear overblown, Macro Hive research analyst Viresh Kanabar trade related tumult earlier this year prompted many investors to pare equity exposure, particularly to higher-risk growth after the market rebound - the S&P 500 is up about 6% for the year and near a record high - institutional investors have been slow to return to equities. Overall, investors' equity positioning is still only modestly overweight, according to Deutsche Bank in earnings from AI and technology names could draw more investors and lift markets further in coming weeks, analysts said."If you are trying to beat your benchmark and you were underweight any of the AI names you have to chase them," B. Riley Wealth's Hogan S&P 500's 2.2% gain in July, the seasonally volatile months of August and September, markets might face some short-term turbulence, Hogan said. Historically, August has marked a pick-up in stock market gyrations that peaks in kicked off with stocks selling off sharply on Friday as new U.S. tariffs on dozens of trading partners and Amazon's unimpressive earnings weighed on sentiment, while a weaker payrolls report added to risk any near-term market pullback should be seen as a buying opportunity, especially in some of the mega-cap, technology names, Hogan big AI names, Alphabet, Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Amazon, commanding about a quarter of the weight in the S&P 500, the health of the AI trade bodes well for the market at an index level, analysts said."We're not saying the weakness isn't there in other parts of the economy," Kanabar said."We're just saying at the index level, the largest companies dominate to such an extent (that) it doesn't matter to some at the moment." (Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch and Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Alden Bentley)
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Wall Street Week Ahead: AI gains, strong earnings support US stocks as tariff woes linger
With more than half of second quarter earnings reported and stocks near record highs, company results have reassured investors about the artificial intelligence trade that has energized Wall Street, even if tariff worries curtailed buying. With results in from 297 of the S&P 500 companies as of Thursday, year-on-year earnings growth for the second quarter is now estimated at 9.8%, up from 5.8% estimated growth on July 1, according to LSEG data. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Data Science Public Policy Data Science Cybersecurity healthcare Others Data Analytics MCA Artificial Intelligence Operations Management Degree Healthcare Design Thinking PGDM Technology CXO Digital Marketing Management others Finance Product Management Leadership Project Management MBA Skills you'll gain: Duration: 10 Months E&ICT Academy, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati CERT-IITG Prof Cert in DS & BA with GenAI India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 11 Months IIT Madras CERT-IITM Advanced Cert Prog in AI and ML India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 10 Months IIM Kozhikode CERT-IIMK DABS India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 30 Weeks IIM Kozhikode SEPO - IIMK-AI for Senior Executives India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 11 Months E&ICT Academy, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati CERT-IITG Postgraduate Cert in AI and ML India Starts on undefined Get Details by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like No annual fees for life UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo Next week investors will get a peek at earnings from Dow Jones Industrial Average constituents Disney, McDonald's and Caterpillar, for a look at the broader economy. Strong profit reports for these companies could propel the Dow, trading just shy of its December record high, to a fresh peak. Some 81% of the companies have beaten analyst expectations on earnings, above the 76% average for the past four quarters. "The earnings season has been unambiguously better than expected," Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth in Boston, said. Live Events The strength of corporate earnings is particularly reassuring for investors after the pummeling sentiment took in the prior quarter due to the twin threats of tariffs and worries over flagging economic growth. "The first quarter was a bit more mixed and you had some questionable economic data ... which I think gave the market some pause," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. "But the second quarter seems to have just been a turnaround," Ghriskey said. The strength of results for names linked to the artificial intelligence trade - the investment thesis that AI will be a transformative force, driving a significant portion of future economic growth and company profits - is particularly heartening, investors and analysts said. "Overall it has been mega caps, growth/technology/AI that is driving a lot of the results," Ghriskey said. "This is where we want to be exposed in terms of companies ... we're at maximum equity exposures and we're comfortable there." Having boosted the market for several quarters, the trade ran into rough waters at the start of the year as the emergence of Chinese-founded artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek rattled investors, stoking concerns over heightened competition that could disrupt the dominance of established tech giants at the heart of the AI trade, including Nvidia. Strong results from Microsoft and Meta Platforms reassured investors that massive bets on AI are paying off. Worries over AI demand appear overblown, Macro Hive research analyst Viresh Kanabar said. The trade related tumult earlier this year prompted many investors to pare equity exposure, particularly to higher-risk growth stocks. Even after the market rebound - the S&P 500 is up about 6% for the year and near a record high - institutional investors have been slow to return to equities. Overall, investors' equity positioning is still only modestly overweight, according to Deutsche Bank estimates. Strength in earnings from AI and technology names could draw more investors and lift markets further in coming weeks, analysts said. "If you are trying to beat your benchmark and you were underweight any of the AI names you have to chase them," B. Riley Wealth's Hogan said. After S&P 500's 2.2% gain in July, the seasonally volatile months of August and September, markets might face some short-term turbulence, Hogan said. Historically, August has marked a pick-up in stock market gyrations that peaks in October. August kicked off with stocks selling off sharply on Friday as new U.S. tariffs on dozens of trading partners and Amazon's unimpressive earnings weighed on sentiment, while a weaker payrolls report added to risk aversion. But any near-term market pullback should be seen as a buying opportunity, especially in some of the mega-cap, technology names, Hogan said. With big AI names, Alphabet, Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Amazon, commanding about a quarter of the weight in the S&P 500, the health of the AI trade bodes well for the market at an index level, analysts said. "We're not saying the weakness isn't there in other parts of the economy," Kanabar said.
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Wall Street falls the most since May after employers slash hiring and tariffs roll out
U.S. stocks slumped on Friday (August 1, 2025), and the S&P suffered its biggest daily percentage decline in more than two months as new U.S. tariffs on dozens of trading partners and a surprisingly weak jobs report spurred selling pressure. Also weighing on equities was an 8.3% tumble in shares after the company posted quarterly results but failed to meet lofty expectations for its Amazon Web Services cloud computing unit. Just hours before the tariff deadline on Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing duties on U.S. imports from countries, including Canada, Brazil, India and Taiwan, in his latest round of levies as countries attempted to seek ways to reach better deals. Further denting confidence in the economic picture, data showed U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in July while the prior month's report was revised sharply lower, indicating the labor market may be starting to crack. The report significantly pushed up expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its September meeting. 'There's no way to pretty-up this report. Previous months were revised significantly lower where the labor market has been on stall-speed,' said Brian Jacobsen, Chief Economist at Annex Wealth Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. 'Last year the Fed messed up by not cutting in July so they did a catch-up cut at their next meeting. They'll likely have to do the same thing this year.' Market expectations the Fed will cut rates by at least 25 basis points at its September meeting stood at 86.5%, according to CME's FedWatch Tool, up from 37.7% in the prior session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 542.40 points, or 1.23%, to 43,588.58, the S&P 500 lost 101.38 points, or 1.60%, to 6,238.01 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 472.32 points, or 2.24%, to 20,650.13. The S&P 500 recorded its biggest single-day percentage decline since May 21 while the Nasdaq suffered its biggest daily percentage drop since April 21. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 2.36%, the Nasdaq declined 2.17%, and the Dow fell 2.92%. The CBOE Volatility Index, also known as Wall Street's fear gauge, closed up 3.66 points at 20.38, its highest close since June 20. Amazon was the biggest drag on the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq and pushed the consumer discretionary index, down nearly 3.6% as the worst performing of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors. Also reporting earnings was Apple, which lost 2.5% after it posted a current-quarter revenue forecast well above Wall Street estimates, but CEO Tim Cook warned U.S. tariffs would add $1.1 billion in costs over the period. Stocks briefly extended declines after Trump said he ordered the commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika L. McEntarfer, to be fired in the wake of the jobs data. '(Trump) didn't seem to be disappointed with the last five jobs reports,' said Art Hogan, Chief Market Strategist, B. Riley Wealth, Boston, saying that the firing stood out as irregular. 'I think this is clearly something that happens in dictatorships, not in democracies.' The Federal Reserve said Governor Adriana Kugler is resigning early from her term and will exit the central bank on Aug. 8, enabling President Donald Trump to select a new governor as he has ramped up pressure against Chair Jerome Powell recently to cut interest rates. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.17-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 2.69-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 posted eight new 52-week highs and 29 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 29 new highs and 202 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 19.51 billion shares, compared with the 18.44 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.
