Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures hit pause after Trump-Xi talks with Big Tech earnings ahead
US stock futures took a breather on Thursday as investors digested the outcome of talks between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting, and a mixed bag of Big Tech earnings.
Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) slipped 0.2%. Contracts on the broad benchmark S&P 500 (ES=F) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) swung between slight gains and losses.
Stocks have lost steam after Fed Chair Jerome Powell stressed that a December rate cut is “not a foregone conclusion — far from it.” His comments, which came after the central bank lowered its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point, highlight division among policymakers.
The Trump-Xi meeting failed to provide a boost, delivering the deal the market expected: A small cut in overall US tariffs on China goods in return for a pause in Beijing’s curbs on rare earth supplies, and China to start buying US soybeans again.
Meanwhile, investors braced for quarterly results from tech megacaps Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) after the bell, following earnings reports from their “Magnificent Seven” counterparts Alphabet (GOOG), Meta (META), and Microsoft (MSFT) late Wednesday.
Alphabet shares jumped over 7% after the Google parent reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results. But Meta sank almost 8% and Microsoft slipped nearly 3% as investors parsed the companies’ outlooks.
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