Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
NYSE
Stock futures were little changed Thursday night after major U.S. indexes closed higher, buoyed by cool inflation data.
S&P 500 futures slipped 0.06%, while Nasdaq 100 futures lost 0.08%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 91 points, or about 0.2%.
A 10% decline in Nike shares weighed on Dow futures, as the sports apparel giant saw revenue in its Greater China market decline during the fiscal second quarter. The company is also forecasting a hit to gross margins due to tariffs.
The S&P 500 and the Dow both snapped their four-day losing streaks in the previous session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also rose, gaining 1.4%, as several tech stocks recouped losses from the day before.
Stocks on Thursday rose after a lighter-than-expected inflation reading from November’s consumer price index report and gains in the market’s tech leaders. The CPI data — which reflected a 2.7% year-over-year jump in consumer prices, lower than expected — gave investors hope that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates in 2026. To be sure, some economists warned that the methodology used in the data release — which was the first CPI report since the government shutdown this fall — could lead to a reacceleration in December’s inflation report.
Shares of big-name tech stocks and chipmakers also rose throughout the day after Micron Technology gave robust guidance for revenues in the current quarter, saying that “demand is substantially higher than supply for the foreseeable future.” The results reassured investors after recent sessions were swamped with jitters over the artificial intelligence trade. Each of the Magnificent Seven stocks closed Thursday in the green.
To be sure, semiconductor stocks remain about 8% below their highs.
“The significance and timing of the returns on AI investment remain uncertain,” Magdalena Ocampo, market strategist at Principal Asset Management, wrote in a note to clients. “However, monetary easing, fiscal policy, and easing trade uncertainty, combined with AI spending as a new growth engine, point to a more favorable macro backdrop in 2026. The result could be an equity rally that expands from just a handful of dominant AI leaders to a broader group, particularly those with tangible gains from AI adoption.”
This week, the S&P 500 and 30-stock Dow are down about 0.8% and 1%, respectively. The Nasdaq is down 0.8% week to date.
Friday could see volatile market activity as options on four types of securities are set to expire on the same day, an event known as “quadruple witching.” More than $7.1 trillion in notional options exposure is set to expire this Friday, making it the largest options expiration on record, according to Goldman Sachs.
