4:10pm: Nasdaq hit hard
The Nasdaq dropped nearly 1.7% as tech shares, particularly Nvidia, led the losses ahead of Fed Chair Jerome Powell's upcoming speech at the Jackson Hole symposium.
The S&P 500 fell 0.9%, and the Dow Jones dipped 0.5%, as investors remained cautious about potential shifts in Fed policy, with recent meeting minutes suggesting a possible rate cut in September.
2:20pm: Paramount to consider rival takeover bid
Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) shares were up in early afternoon trading as the company extended the “go shop” period of its $8 billion merger agreement with Skydance to evaluate a competing bid from media executive Edgar Bronfman Jr, the former CEO of Warner Music Group and Seagram.
The company said on Wednesday it would extend the “go shop” period by 15 days to September 5 to evaluate the new bid.
Bronfman initially offered $4.3 billion for National Amusements, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, but submitted a revised offer of $6 billion on Wednesday.
Class A shares of Paramount gained almost 1.1% by Thursday afternoon in New York.
12:30pm: NVIDIA struggles
Stocks slipped into the red in the early afternoon with the Nasdaq leading the declines following an almost 2% drop in chipmaker NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD).
The Nasdaq was down 0.7% at 17,797 points, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% at 5,602 points, and the Dow Jones slipped 0.2% at 40,800 points.
Data cloud analytics firm Snowflake plunged 13.2% after it raised its full-year product revenue but kept its margin outlook unchanged.
Shares of exercise equipment firm Peloton Interactive Inc (NASDAQ:PTON) surged more than 34% as it posted a narrower-than-expected loss per share for the quarter while video communications platform Zoom Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:ZOOM) added almost 13% after it raised its full-year revenue guidance.
11:05am: Initial jobless claims rise
Initial jobless claims in the US rose by 4,000 to 232,000, in line with expectations, while the four-week moving average fell by 750 to 236,000.
The advance insured unemployment rate for the week ending August 10 held steady at 1.2%, with insured unemployment increasing by 4,000 to 1,863,000, the highest level since late November 2021.
10:00am: Mixed start
It's been a mixed start so far for US stocks, with gains for tech giants helping lift two of Wall Street's main indices.
The Nasdaq, as expected, set the early pace and is up 0.2%, with the S&P 500 up 0.1%.
Having started higher, the Dow Jones quickly dropped into the red, led by a 1% fall for Intel, while the Russell 2000 is also slightly lower.
All but two of the top 20 stocks in the S&P are in the green, however.
China's Pinduoduo Inc (NASDAQ:PDD) is top riser on the Nasdaq 100, followed by Broadcom, CrowdStrike, PayPal and NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD).
7.40am: More Nasdaq gains expected
US stocks are seen extending gains on Thursday, as the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Symposium begins, with unemployment claims and PMI data out too.
Futures for the tech-powered Nasdaq are set to lead the way, up 0.3%, while the S&P 500 futures are up 0.2%. Dow futures are flat and for the Russell 2000 are just below flat.
This follows a solid performance yesterday, as the S&P rose 0.4% to find itself just 1% from July's record high.
The combination of dovish Fed minutes and the big downside revision to the annual payrolls number also sent the US yields lower and the dollar lower.
July's FOMC meeting minutes "solidified the prospects of a September cut", says Deutsche Bank's Henry Allen, noting that several Fed rate-setters even "observed that the recent progress on inflation and increases in the unemployment rate had provided a plausible case" for a 25bps cut at the July meeting.
While all members supported the decision to keep rates unchanged in the end, a "vast majority" saw a September rate cut as appropriate if data came in as expected.
The dollar index, DXY, is up 0.3% at 101.33 this morning, with the greenback up 0.1% against the euro but down 0.2% versus the British pound.
Market analyst Josh Mahony at Scope Markets says US markets are expected to remain on the front-foot today, "with traders processing yesterday’s FOMC minutes ahead of tomorrow’s Jackson Hole appearance from Jay Powell."
He says the impending Jackson Hole appearance from Powell "provides the basis for a fresh reminder of the pivot that looks to be around the corner".
Today traders will be keeping an eye on unemployment claims and US PMI data.
"Coming off the back of two declines in the weekly initial jobless claims, markets are expecting an uptick to serve as a reminder of the instability within the jobs markets," Mahony says.
"However, traders should instead focus on today’s services PMI data, with any notable decline in this figure helping to ease inflation concerns given the fact that US price gains have been almost entirely driven by the services sector.