U.S. stock futures rose on Wednesday after ending on a mixed note on Tuesday. Futures of major benchmark indices were higher.
President Donald Trump finalized the long-anticipated trade deal between Washington and Tokyo.
Trump emphasized the job creation potential, stating it would generate hundreds of thousands of jobs. Additionally, Japan will open its markets to U.S. cars, trucks, rice, and other agricultural products, while agreeing to a reciprocal tariff of 15% on U.S. imports.
Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.38% and the two-year bond was at 3.85%. The CME Group's FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing a 95.3% likelihood of the Federal Reserve keeping the current interest rates unchanged in its July meeting.
Futures | Change (+/-) |
Dow Jones | 0.50% |
S&P 500 | 0.41% |
Nasdaq 100 | 0.23% |
Russell 2000 | 1.07% |
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, were higher in premarket on Wednesday. The SPY was up 0.40% at $631.39, while the QQQ advanced 0.22% to $562.49, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Cues From Last Session:
On Tuesday, health care, real estate, utilities, materials, consumer discretionary, financials, energy, industrials, and consumer staples sectors recorded the biggest gains.
However, communication services and IT sectors dropped as Nasdaq fell in trade.
Northrop Grumman Corp. NOC jumped 9.41% after reporting robust earnings, beating analyst estimates. Coca-Cola Co. KO declined 0.19% as pricing pressure offset its better-than-expected earnings.
The Dow Jones index ended 179 points or 0.40% higher at 44,502.44, whereas the S&P 500 index rose above the flatline by 0.064% to 6,309.62. Nasdaq Composite declined 0.39% to 20,892.69, and the small-cap gauge, Russell 2000, gained 0.79% to end at 2,248.76.
Index | Performance (+/-) | Value |
Nasdaq Composite | -0.39% | 20,892.69 |
S&P 500 | 0.06% | 6,309.62 |
Dow Jones | 0.40% | 44,502.44 |
Russell 2000 | 0.79% | 2,248.76 |
Insights From Analysts:
According to the analysts at BlackRock, markets are pricing in multiple Federal Reserve rate cuts over the next year. Yet they see “sticky inflation limiting rate cuts – even as renewed rate hikes are unlikely.”
The note stated that BlackRock’s preference is partly driven by caution on long-term bonds due to the lack of U.S. fiscal discipline and sticky inflation.
BlackRock further states that “We get selective across and within regions. We went overweight U.S. agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS): spreads are wider than historical averages and we could see some investors switch from long-term Treasuries. We upped local currency emerging market (EM) debt to neutral this month: it has weathered U.S. trade policy shifts, and debt levels have improved.”
Additionally, they highlighted the bottom line, stating that there was a mix of income opportunities, but they remain selective due to fiscal sustainability risks.
“Federal Reserve independence is important for investor confidence around the globe, in our view,” said Collin Martin, director, fixed income strategy, at the Schwab Center for Financial Research.
“We expect the Fed to lower rates gradually over the next year or so, which seems appropriate if the labor market gradually cools and inflation resumes its disinflationary trend towards 2%.”
See Also: How to Trade Futures
Upcoming Economic Data
Here’s what investors will keep an eye on Wednesday:
- June’s existing home sales data will be out by 10:00 a.m. ET.
Stocks In Focus:
- Tesla Inc. TSLA was 0.35% up in premarket on Wednesday as analysts expect it to report earnings of 42 cents per share on revenue of $22.79 billion before the opening bell.
- AT&T Inc. T declined 0.47% as it is expected to report earnings before the opening bell. Analysts estimate earnings of 52 cents per share on revenue of $30.45 billion.
- Texas Instruments Inc. TXN dropped 11.97% despite better-than-expected second quarter results as it issues a cautious outlook clouded by persistent geopolitical uncertainties and a "shallow" recovery in the crucial automotive sector.
- OFA Group OFAL surged 54.91% after the company announced a Bitcoin BTC/USD Treasury Strategy worth $100 million.
- GoPro Inc. GPRO zoomed 46.72% and Krispy Kreme Inc. DNUT jumped 17.43% amid a renewed interest in meme stocks, with retail investors driving up the prices.
- Lulu’s Fashion Lounge Holdings Inc. LVLU advanced 24.31% after it successfully regained compliance with Nasdaq’s minimum bid price requirement for continued listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market.
- Vistra Corp. VST rose 5.24% and Constellation Energy Corp. CEG was 5.10% higher after the power grid operator PJM Interconnection announced the results of its capacity auction for the 2026-2027 delivery year
- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. ADR BABA was 2.06% higher after it unveiled Qwen3-Coder-480B, an open-source AI coding model, touted as its most advanced to date.
- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. TSM rose 0.94% after it announced the plans to launch its “Ten Major AI Infrastructure Projects” initiative, aimed at generating more than $510 billion in economic value by 2040.
Commodities, Gold, And Global Equity Markets:
Crude oil futures were trading lower in the early New York session by 0.15% to hover around $65.21 per barrel.
Gold Spot U.S. Dollar fell 0.05% to hover around $3,429.88 per ounce. Its last record high stood at $3,500.33 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was higher by 0.04% at the 97.4330 level.
Asian markets ended higher on Wednesday as Japan's Nikkei 225, South Korea's Kospi, Hong Kong's Hang Seng, India's S&P BSE Sensex, China’s CSI 300, and Australia's ASX 200 indices rose. European markets were mostly higher in early trade.
Read Next:
Photo courtesy: godongphoto / Shutterstock.com
Edge Rankings
Price Trend
© 2025 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.