A woman carries an umbrella as she walks past the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on February 9, 2017 in New York City.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
Forward contracts linked to major US stock indices rose during the overnight session on Wednesday night, suggesting that the S&P 500’s three-day winning streak should be extended on Thursday.
Dow futures rose 45 points, while S&P 500s added a similar 0.2%. Nasdaq 100 futures contracts rose 0.4%.
The movements in extended trading took place after a relatively calm day on Wall Street, which caused the S&P 500 to rise 0.1% and a third straight 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 shares during the regular session.
Investors have watched a handful of stocks, including eBay, PayPal and Qualcomm, in extensive trading after each issued a quarterly earnings report.
Of the three, eBay easily outperformed a rise of more than 9% in the after-hours market, after beating the top and bottom lines and issuing a rosier-than-expected forecast for the first quarter.
PayPal gained nearly 3%, while Qualcomm declined more than 7% after reporting its revenue below the consensus estimates for its fiscal first quarter.
Apple has risen 2% in expanded trade after CNBC reported that it is close to an agreement with Hyundai-Kia to manufacture driverless cars. The news that the two could come close to an agreement comes after Hyundai said in January that it was in preliminary talks with the iPhone manufacturer to develop a car.
The macroeconomic outlook remains in focus as traders prepare for the latest version of the Department’s Unemployment Claims Report, which would appear on Thursday at 08:30 ET. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect first-time claims for the week ending January 30 to total 830,000.
If claims came as expected, it would mean a slight reduction compared to the initial claims of 847,000 from the previous week.
The economic recovery and market performance have followed the severity of Covid-19 in the US, and some strategists have said the introduction of vaccines could lead to higher interest rates if not better than cyclical or bank stocks.
“Sentiment for the covid vaccine is still very low. It will improve as investors understand that vaccines will give you 1) immunity or 2) mild reaction (low severity),” said Evercore ISI strategist Dennis DeBusschere. Written in an email on Wednesday.
‘As investors and society in general realize that low severity is really important, vaccine sentiment will improve and improve [Treasury] returns will have another gap higher, ‘he added.
The yield on the US Treasury note for ten years rose by about 3 basis points to 1.14% on Wednesday.