US Stock Futures Inch Higher Following S&P 500, Nasdaq Drop As Investors Brace For SpaceX Share Unlock — GOOGL, UBER, META, FLUT, AMZN In Focus

• The S&P 500 ended 0.2% lower, the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.8%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.5%.
• Nvidia stock soared after SpaceX said it would use NVDA chips for its AI infrastructure.
• Iran said it reached an agreement with Oman on a proposed route for shipping through Hormuz.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended lower on Wednesday, while the Dow hit fresh record highs led by gains in Nvidia after Elon Musk said on SpaceX’s earnings call that the company would use Nvidia chips exclusively for its AI infrastructure.  

The S&P 500 ended 0.2% lower, while the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.8% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.5%. The Russell 2000, which tracks stocks with small market capitalizations, fell 0.6%.

Futures tied to the Dow added 86 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.4%. 

Among ETFs tracking benchmark indexes, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) ended flat, and Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) ended Wednesday 0.9% lower, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) rose 0.6%.

Meanwhile, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) slipped 0.8%, while the broader Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) lost 0.3%, tracking weakness in Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), SpaceX (SPCX) and Tesla (TSLA) stock. 

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits for SPY and QQQ was ‘bearish’ and ‘neutral’ for the DIA, with ‘high’ message volumes.

US Market Drivers

Investor attention seems to have moved solely onto earnings with corporate America deep into the quarterly reporting cycle as geopolitical developments show signs of easing.

 With U.S. oil settling near $75, Iran announced a potential breakthrough for global energy supply lines after finalizing a proposed shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz in partnership with Oman.

“Earnings remain our north star, the economy continues to show resilience, market participation has broadened, and valuation excesses have largely been worked off,” Keith Lerner at Truist Advisory Services told Bloomberg in an interview. 

Wall Street anticipates another packed schedule of earnings reports on Thursday, with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) set to release its results ahead of the market opening, while Airbnb (ABNB) and Lyft (LYFT) are scheduled to report after the closing bell.

Trending Stocks To Watch 

Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL): Google is in talks for a multibillion-dollar deal with coding startup Mechanize while Chief Scientist Jeff Dean departs for a new scientific research venture.

Uber Technologies (UBER): Investors focused on the ride-hailing firm’s disappointing near-term outlook and continued high investment in scaling vehicle autonomy. 

Meta Platforms Inc. (META): The company announced the launch of Muse Code, its inaugural artificial intelligence coding agent designed to automate complex software development tasks and compete directly with dominant offerings from Anthropic and OpenAI. 

Flutter Entertainment (FLUT): Flutter Entertainment (FLUT) shares dropped sharply on Wednesday and closed down 11% after the online betting giant posted mixed second-quarter results, cut full-year guidance, and announced a CEO change. 

Amazon (AMZN): Jeff Bezos has kicked off his stock sales for the year, offloading nearly $350 million worth of Amazon equity.

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