Futures contracts tied to the major US stock indices held steady during Wednesday night’s overnight session as investors analyzed a large amount of corporate earnings during a positive week.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 18 points, implying a slight opening loss when regular trading resumes on Thursday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures changed little and rose a hair, respectively.
Wall Street’s focus on after-hours trading on Wednesday night was focused on earnings announcements by several American companies, but especially Microsoft and automaker Tesla.
Despite better-than-expected figures, shares of Microsoft, the software giant, fell as much as 3% in off-hours trading. Although the company’s results were largely positive, Microsoft said that its purchase of transactional licenses continued to decline and that the subsidiary LinkedIn was negatively affected by the weak labor market.
Meanwhile, Tesla exceeded analyst expectations and posted its fourth consecutive quarter of earnings, opening the door for the company’s inclusion in the S&P 500. Excluding one-time charges, Tesla’s second-quarter earnings per share of $ 2.18. They were well above 3 cents. per share expected by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.
Elon Musk’s automaker also said it is ready “for a successful second half” and reiterated its goal of delivering 500,000 vehicles this year.
The after-hours movements followed a positive regular session on Wednesday, with major indexes posting modest gains in both vaccine announcements and federal stimulus.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day 165.44 points, or 0.6%, with McDonald’s and Microsoft contributing more to the index. The S&P 500 also increased approximately 0.6% as public service and real estate investment trusts led the broader market higher. The Nasdaq compound, for its part, rose 0.2%.
All three indices rose 1.25%, 1.59% and 1.9%, respectively, during the week.
The shares obtained a bid in the morning after the United States agreed to pay drug maker Pfizer and German partner BioNTech nearly $ 2 billion for 100 million coronavirus vaccines if its candidate proves to be safe and effective.
US stocks also rebounded toward the end of the regular session on Wednesday after sources told CNBC that Republicans in Congress are evaluating an extension of diluted federal unemployment benefits through the end of the year.
On Thursday, the Labor Department will release its latest report on weekly unemployment claims. The weekly figures provide Wall Street with a critical view of how many Americans continue to collect unemployment benefits, known as continuing claims.
An additional 1.3 million workers are expected to have first filed claims for state unemployment benefits during the week ending July 18.
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