US stock index futures rose on Wednesday after President Donald Trump struck a trade deal with Japan, increasing expectations of further deals as the August 1 deadline approaches.
… It rose 0.48%, gaining 216 points.
The S&P 500 hit a record high for the eighth time in the last month on Tuesday, with a historic close. This rise was supported by easing trade tensions, a strong US economy, and positive second-quarter results.
The Dow closed 0.4% higher, but remained 1.25% below its all-time high.
However, the technology-focused Nasdaq fell due to losses in companies like Meta Platforms (META.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O).Investors are focused on the earnings reports of the “Magnificent Seven” that have driven US stock markets to their peak. Tesla (TSLA.O) and Alphabet (GOOGL.O) will release their post-market results on Wednesday.
Optimism and high valuations surrounding artificial intelligence have led to high earnings expectations for these stocks, but this leaves no room for disappointment.
Tesla and Alphabet shares generally remained flat in pre-market trading.Texas Instruments (TXN.O) fell 11.7% after its quarterly earnings estimates failed to satisfy investors. The company highlighted lower-than-expected demand for its analog chips and tariff-related uncertainties. This negatively impacted rival analog chip manufacturers as well; Analog Devices (ADI.O), NXP Semiconductors (NXPI.O), and ON Semiconductor (ON.O) shares fell between 4.7% and 6.3%. General Motors (GM.N) lost more than 8% on Tuesday after announcing that Trump’s tariffs negatively impacted quarterly earnings by $1.1 billion. Other major companies to release data on Wednesday include Hasbro, Chipotle (CMG.N), and Mattel (MAT.O). June existing home sales are expected among the economic data. Weekly jobless claims and S&P Global’s PMI data, to be released on Thursday, will be closely watched to assess the health of the economy following tariff-related uncertainty. Following mixed economic data last week, investors have ruled out a Fed rate cut for next week. The probability of a cut in September is calculated at 56.1%.
