Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 75 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures dropped 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.4%.
Alphabet shares slid 3% in extended trading after the Google parent lifted its forecast for 2026 capital expenditures to as high as $205 billion, pointing to strong artificial intelligence demand. The increase comes as investors have grown more cautious in recent months about hyperscalers’ spending around the AI effort.
In regular trading, the Dow fell 6.06 points, or 0.01%. The broad market S&P 500 lost 0.14%, and the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.57%.
Asia-Pacific markets opened higher Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 adding 0.55% while the Topix rose 0.22%. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 2.3% at open, while the small-cap Kosdaq climbed 1.42%. Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was 0.72% higher.
Traders are also keeping an eye on oil prices, which moved higher Wednesday after the U.S. launched another round of strikes against Iran and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tehran was “not serious about talks.” Investors are watching crude closely – a sustained increase could keep inflation elevated and complicate the Federal Reserve’s interest rate path.
“Without an abundance of strong earnings as a distraction, investors’ attention has gravitated toward the war again,” said Hardika Singh, economic strategist at Fundstrat. “Those who had previously thought that oil prices have peaked are now being forced to redo the inflation math all over again. Now more than ever, pricing power remains key for companies if they want investors to reward them.”
On Thursday, investors are looking forward to another busy day of earnings. Dow, American Airlines, T-Mobile, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are on deck before the bell. Intel will report after the market close.
Weekly jobless claims will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET.
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