US pre-open: Futures fall as oil climbs, tech earnings weigh on sentiment

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the opening bell on Thursday as rising oil prices and a heavy earnings slate kept risk appetite subdued. As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.63%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futues had the indices opening 1.03% and 1.76% lower, respectively.

The Dow closed 360.21 points higher on Wednesday as investors awaited key earnings updates from some heavyweight tech names, while chip and AI shares were bolstered by strong quarterly results and M&A speculation from SpaceX.

Meta was 1.42% lower in pre‑market action despite posting a quarterly revenue beat and issuing strong guidance for the current quarter, while Tesla fell 4.39% even as it delivered better‑than‑expected third‑quarter earnings on both the top and bottom line.

As far as Thursday's earnings go, Lockheed Martin posted a solid set of third‑quarter numbers, with sales rising to $20.7bn from $18.6bn a year earlier and net earnings improving to $1.8bn, or $7.97 per share. The defence giant also reported a sharp 27% jump in backlog since Q2, setting a new record at $292bn.

Elsewhere, Spotify delivered strong third‑quarter growth, adding six million premium subscribers to reach 306m and boosting ad‑supported monthly active users by eleven million to 788m. Revenues climbed 16% to €4.97bn, driven by steady premium momentum and healthier ad‑supported performance, with the streaming giant saying it had met all key targets for the period.

Still to come, Comcast and Union Pacific were both slated to report before the open, while Western Digital will deliver its latest quarterly earnings after the close.

On the macro front, weekly jobless claims data from the Labor Department will be published at 1330 BST.





Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com