A woman carries an umbrella as she walks past the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Feb. 9, 2017 in New York City.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
Futures contracts pegged to major US stock indices rose during the overnight session Wednesday evening, indicating an extension of the S&P 500’s three-day earnings streak on Thursday.
Dow futures were up 45 points, while S&P 500 contracts added a similar 0.2%. Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.4%.
The moves in extended trading came after a relatively quiet day on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 up 0.1% and marking a third consecutive day of gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 36 points, while the Nasdaq Composite fell less than 0.1% amid a drop in Amazon stocks during the regular session.
Investors looked at a handful of stocks, including eBay, PayPal, and Qualcomm, in extensive trading after each released a quarterly report.
Of the three, eBay easily outperformed with an increase of more than 9% in the after-hours market after beating both the top and bottom line and releasing a rosier first-quarter forecast than expected.
PayPal gained nearly 3%, while Qualcomm was down more than 7% after reporting earnings below its fiscal first quarter consensus estimates.
Apple surged 2% in expanded trade after CNBC reported it nearly finalized a deal with Hyundai-Kia to produce self-driving cars. The news that the two may be close to a deal comes after Hyundai said in January that it was in preparation with the iPhone maker to develop a car.
The macroeconomic outlook remained in focus as traders prepared for the latest iteration of the Labor Department’s unemployment report, due Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect initial claims to total 830,000 for the week ending January 30.
If claims came in as expected, it would be a slight drop from the previous week’s 847,000 initial claims.
The economic recovery and market performance have followed the severity of Covid-19 in the US, with some strategists saying the introduction of vaccines could lead to higher interest rates, if not an outperformance in cyclical or banking stocks.
“Sentiment of Covid vaccines is still very low. That will improve as investors understand that vaccines will give you either 1) immunity or 2) mild reactions (low severity),” Evercore ISI strategist Dennis DeBusschere wrote in a Wednesday. e-mail.
“As investors and society at large realize that low severity is really important, vaccination sentiment will improve and [Treasury] yields will have one more gap higher, ”he added.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury bill as a benchmark rose about 3 basis points to 1.14% on Wednesday.