Traders on the floor of the NYSE, Oct. 12, 2023.
Source: NYSE
Stock futures were little changed on Thursday evening as traders braced for major bank earnings.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 22 points, or 0.07%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures flickered near the flat line.
Shares of Dollar General rose more than 8% in extended trading after the company’s announcement that it had reinstated former CEO Todd Vasos.
All three major indexes ended the day’s trading session in the red, with the Dow dropping more than 173 points. The S&P 500 slid 0.62%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 0.63%.
These losses came after Thursday’s consumer price index report revealed that inflation still stubbornly persists, pushing bond yields higher. CPI rose 0.4% in September, and gained 3.7% from 12 months earlier.
JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and BlackRock are set to kick off third-quarter earnings for major financial firms on Friday. Investors haven’t been able to hide their feelings of trepidation as higher capital requirements and a looming recession threaten to squeeze earnings for the financials sector.
Besides fears over disappointing earnings and another potential rate hike, investors have also turned their concerns to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which could potentially threaten global oil supply and prices. But Nancy Tengler, chief investment officer at Laffer Tengler Investments, believes that investors might be losing sleep for little reason.
“We’ll have some companies that will disappoint but I think for the most part, earnings are probably going to surprise investors to the upside,” she said. “Investors are too pessimistic. We expect that companies are going to be able to manage this pretty well.”
Tengler added that she believes stocks will end the year with a rally, led by the technology and industrials sectors.
On Friday, traders will also be watching for preliminary consumer sentiment data for October.
