Dow Futures Decline As Fed Minutes Point To Inflation Anxiety: WMT, META, PLTR, NVO Among Stocks To Watch

U.S. stocks appear set for a negative opening on Thursday as investors exercise caution after the Federal Reserve released the minutes of the July meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

The Fed minutes show officials remain worried about President Donald Trump’s tariffs driving up inflation, while stating that their outlook for the labor market has weakened.

While Dow Jones futures declined 0.39% at the time of writing, the S&P 500 futures fell 0.22%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100’s futures edged lower by 0.13%. Futures of the Russell 2000 index were down 0.55%.

Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) was down 0.18% at the time of writing, while Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) declined 0.08% on Thursday morning. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits was in the ‘bullish’ territory.

Asian markets ended Thursday’s trading session on a largely positive note, with the TWSE Capitalization Weighted Stock index gaining the most at 1.41%, followed by the KOSPI at 0.37%, and the Shanghai Composite at 0.13%.

The Nikkei 225 declined 0.62%, while the Hang Seng fell 0.39%.

Stocks To Watch

• Walmart Inc. (WMT): Walmart shares fell nearly 2% in Thursday’s pre-market session ahead of the company’s second-quarter (Q2) results. Wall Street expects Walmart to report earnings per share (EPS) of $0.73 on revenue of $175.6 billion, according to Stocktwits data.
• Meta Platforms Inc. (META): Meta shares edged lower in Thursday’s pre-market trade after reports said that the company has frozen hiring in its artificial intelligence division.
• Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR): Palantir shares gained nearly 1% pre-market after declining almost 17% since the release of a bearish report by short seller Citron Research on Monday.
• Novo Nordisk AS (NVO): Wegovy and Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk has frozen hiring in non-critical areas. Shares edged 0.3% up pre-market.
• Zoom Communications Inc. (ZM), Workday Inc. (WDAY), and Intuit Inc. (INTU) are among the companies scheduled to report their latest quarterly earnings on Thursday.

Also See: FOMC Minutes Show Fed Worried About Tariff-Induced Inflation, Labor Market Weakness

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