Dow Jones Today: Stock Futures Surge After Strong Earnings Reports From Microsoft, Meta as Investors Await Inflation Data

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Stock futures are sharply higher Thursday morning as investors react to better-than-expected quarterly results from Microsoft and Meta, with more Big Tech earnings coming later today.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were recently up 0.9% and 1.2%, respectively, while those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2%. The benchmark S&P 500 index is poised to open at a fresh all-time high after closing lower the past two sessions, and each of the major indexes is on track to post solid gains for July.

Investors are awaiting this morning’s scheduled release of the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, after the central bank yesterday decided to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged. Chair Jerome Powell said after the decision that the Fed needs to see more data on the impact of tariffs on the economy before adjusting rates. Powell’s hawkish stance dashed market hopes that a rate cut is likely in the coming months, which put pressure on stocks yesterday afternoon.

Mega-cap tech stocks were mostly higher in premarket trading, led by Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META), which jumped 8% and 12%, respectively, following the late-Wednesday release of their earnings reports. Amazon (AMZN), which is due to report after today’s closing bell, climbed 3% while Nvidia (NVDA) rose 2%, Broadcom (AVGO) gained 1%, and Apple (AAPL) ticked higher ahead of its earnings release tonight. Alphabet (GOOG) and Tesla (TSLA) were down slightly this morning.

Among other noteworthy post-earnings movers Thursday, telecommunications and entertaintment conglomerate Comcast (CMCSA) rose 5%, while online marketplace eBay (EBAY) surged 13% and online used care seller Carvana (CVNA) soared 17%. Chip designers Arm Holdings (ARM) and Qualcomm (QCOM) dropped 5% and 7%, respectively, while brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) tumbled 11%.

Bitcoin was trading at $118,300 recently, after dropping below $116,000 briefly yesterday afternoon following Powell’s comments.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the performance of the dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, was down 0.1% at 99.74, after rising Wednesday to its highest level since late May.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects borrowing costs on a wide array of consumer and business loans, was at 4.34% this morning, down from 4.37% at yesterday’s close.

West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, slipped 0.4% to $69.70 per barrel, after hitting a five-week high on Wednesday. Gold futures were up 0.2% at $3,360 an ounce, rebounding from a steep decline yesterday.