Wall Street Futures Steady, Big Tech Advances On AI, Yen Roars, Bitcoin Drops 1% Following Jamie Dimon's Concerns

Futures on Wall Street are trading flat during the premarket session on Thursday as traders seek further insights into the future of monetary policy.

The sentiment remains fragile, with the S&P 500 Index closing in the red Wednesday for its third consecutive day. The market is questioning whether it may have overestimated the possibility of five interest rate cuts in 2024, starting in March.

Yields on Treasuries are showing a slight uptick, with the 10-year yield rising by 5 basis points to reach 4.15%. Demand for a Federal Reserve repo facility has surged to its highest level since 2020 this week, indicating that some financial institutions fear a forthcoming liquidity drain.

Meanwhile, the Japanese yen has made a remarkable rally, gaining over 1.4% against the dollar and reaching its highest levels in nearly four months. This surge followed unexpected hawkish remarks from Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda, suggesting a potential departure from the negative interest rate policy sooner than anticipated.

Crude, as tracked by the U.S. Oil Fund USO, slightly rebounded above $70 a barrel, attempting to snap a 5-day losing streak. Gold, as monitored through the SPDR Gold Trust GLD, inched 0.3% higher to $2,035 per ounce, benefiting from the diminishing strength of the U.S. dollar.

Bitcoin BTC/USD has experienced a decline of more than 1%, following a 0.7% drop on Wednesday that put an end to its 5-day winning streak. This setback came as JPMorgan CEO, Jamie Dimon expressed concerns about the use of cryptocurrencies for illicit activities. He also mentioned that he would take action to shut down cryptocurrencies if he had the authority to do so.

US Futures Performance On Thursday

In premarket trading on Tuesday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY edged up 0.1% to $455.28 and the Invesco QQQ ETF QQQ inched 0.3% higher to $386.25, according to Benzinga Pro data.

The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, is trading 1.5% higher to 13.16.

Economic Data To Watch

• The number of job cuts, as measured by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., increased to 45,510 in November, compared to 36,863 in October. Andrew Challenger, a labor expert and senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., noted that the labor market appears to be stabilizing, with layoffs expected to persist into 2024.
  
• Initial jobless claims data is set to be released at 08:30 a.m. ET, with economists forecasting a slight increase from 218,000 to 222,000 for the week ending Dec. 2.
  
• The U.S. Treasury will conduct auctions for 4-week and 8-week bills.
  
• Freddie Mac will disclose the 15-year and 30-year mortgage rates as of Dec. 6, with the 30-year rate standing at 7.22% in the previous week.

Stocks To Watch

• Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD was up 2.4% in premarket trading following the joint announcement by Meta Platforms Inc. META, OpenAI, and Microsoft Corp. MSFT that they are transitioning from NVIDIA Corp. NVDA to AMD’s newest AI chip.
  
• GameStop Corp. GME plummeted 8% after missing estimates for quarterly revenue.
  
• Dollar General Corp. DG was 3.6% higher on earnings beat.
  
• Alphabet Inc. GOOG GOOGL witnessed a 3.2% increase in the premarket after unveiling its Gemini AI model, which has outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-4 in several benchmark tests. Microsoft is 0.4% lower.

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