Stock futures inch lower as investors review earnings, brace for inflation report: Live

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock exchange during morning trading on May 17, 2024.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

U.S. stock futures ticked lower Thursday night as investors reviewed a flurry of corporate earnings ahead of a key inflation report. Wall Street was also headed for a losing week after what has been a stellar month for stocks.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 35 points, or 0.09%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.12% and 0.19%, respectively.

Traders digested the latest company earnings results. Dell Technologies tumbled 16% even after its first-quarter results beat expectations. Cloud security stock Zscaler surged 14%, while developer data platform MongoDB plunged 23%. Apparel retailer Gap surged 21%, while department store chain Nordstrom slid more than 6%.

Wall Street is coming off a losing session for the major benchmarks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed more than 300 points lower, or by 0.9%, after Salesforce missed revenue expectations in its latest results. The S&P 500 dropped 0.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.1%.

Those moves come during a holiday-shortened trading week. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were each on pace to end five-week winning streaks, while the Dow was headed for a second straight week of losses, as rising Treasury yields weighed on investor sentiment.

Investors are concerned the choppiness could mean the recent stock rally is starting to flag. They’re worried the advance of a handful of large-cap tech stocks, namely Nvidia, is masking weakness in the broader market. The S&P 500 has climbed roughly 10% this year, but the equal-weighted index is up by about 3%.

“When we see option pricing betting that the momentum is going to continue or actually exceed history, that becomes a problem for us,” Jeff deGraff, head of technical research at Renaissance Macro Research, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” He cited the recent spikes in semiconductor stocks such as Qualcomm and Nvidia.

“They might consolidate over the summer, but this isn’t the place to be putting in fresh money,” deGraff added. “So, I think the expectations are pretty filled up here, and we just want to be careful.”

The April personal consumption expenditure data is due out Friday morning. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect a 2.7% year-over-year increase for core PCE, down slightly from the 2.8% gain in the previous read.

Stocks are on pace to close out a strong month, with each of the major benchmarks set to register a sixth positive month in seven. The Dow is up 0.8% this month, while the S&P 500 is higher by 4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which has gained about 7%, is on track for its best month since November 2023 when it gained 10.70%.