U. S. stock futures on Wednesday night pointed to a slight rebound from the steep losses seen in regular trading.
U. S. stock futures on Wednesday night pointed to a slight rebound from the steep losses seen in regular trading.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 30 points, indicating a gain of 78.58 points at Thursday’s open. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also pointed to solid gains.
In after-hours trading, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) rose about 0.3 percent. Meanwhile, the Invesco QQQ Trust — which tracks the Nasdaq 100 index — gained around 0.7 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 608 points earlier on Wednesday, while the S&P 500 dropped more than 3 percent. Both indexes also erased their gains for the year. The Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, plunged 4.4 percent.
“The current decline is more a function of a weakening technical position as opposed to the fundamentals breaking down,” said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Baird, in a note. “The technical picture includes, of course, investor psychology that has experienced widespread and deeply seated complacency.”
“The broad weakness is best seen in the Russell 2000 Index and the NYSE Composite which are hitting new lows for the cycle. We would look for these indices to bottom before the market is set to reverse,” he added.
Wednesday’s decline added to what has already been a brutal October for Wall Street. The Dow has lost 7.1 percent this month and is on track for its biggest monthly loss since May 2010. The S&P 500 is down 8.9 percent in October and is headed for its biggest one-month decline since February 2009. The Nasdaq has shed 11.7 percent and is on pace for its worst monthly performance since October 2008.
A White House official reiterated to CNBC that the “fundamentals and future of the U. S. economy remain strong.”
“Unemployment is at a record low for the past half century, business and consumer confidence have hit record highs, and women and minorities are entering our workforce in droves. We remain focused on the long-term outlook of the U. S. economy and confident in our path of continued growth,” the official said.
This latest decline was driven, in part, but a sharp drop in tech shares and worries about corporate earnings.
However, several companies — including Microsoft and Tesla — reported better-than-expected quarterly results Wednesday after the bell.
Microsoft’s profit per share and revenue for its fiscal 2019 first quarter topped analyst estimates, sending the stock up more than 2.5 percent after the bell. Tesla, meanwhile, reported a surprise profit for its previous quarter, sending its stock up more than 14 percent in after-hours trading. Ford’s shares also jumped 6.8 percent after the company posted better-than-expected earnings.
However, Advanced Micro Devices tumbled more than 22 percent despite stronger-than-expected results as the company issued weak revenue guidance for the fourth quarter.
—CNBC’s Eamon Javers contributed to this report.
