U.S. stock futures pulled back Thursday, signaling a lower open
one day after the Nasdaq Composite established a record high.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52 points, or
0.3%, to 18089. E-mini futures on the S&P 500 lost five points,
or 0.2%, to 2116. E-mini futures on the Nasdaq-100 shed seven
points, or 0.2%, to 4535.
The decline comes on the heels of lower markets in Europe and
Asia. Germany's DAX index was down 0.4%, while France's CAC-40 shed
0.6%.
Chinese stocks plummeted after brokerages announced tighter
restrictions on stock trading. The Shanghai Composite fell
6.5%.
"Your big story today is Shanghai," said Phil Flynn, analyst at
futures brokerage Price Futures Group in Chicago. "That seems to be
wearing on sentiment."
Stocks staged a rally on Wednesday, as a surge in technology
stocks lifted the Nasdaq Composite Index up 1.5% to a record high
close of 5106.59. The index is up 7.8% this year.
The Dow on Wednesday gained 0.7% to 18162.99, while the S&P
500 added 0.9% to 2123.48.
Stocks have been whipsawed this week as investors grapple with a
mixed bag of economic data, a wave of new merger announcements and
the prospect of the first interest-rate increase by the Federal
Reserve in nine years as early as September. The Dow is down 0.4%
so far this week, battered by its worst selloff of the month on
Tuesday.
"The Fed is still signaling that rate increases are still in the
cards," Mr. Flynn said.
A handful of economic reports are on tap for Thursday. Initial
jobless claims are due at 8:30 a.m. EDT, with economists surveyed
by The Wall Street Journal calling for 272,000 new claims. Pending
home sales for April are due at 10 a.m. EDT, with economists
forecasting an increase in sales of 1%.
On Friday, investors will get a second reading on first-quarter
gross domestic product. The initial reading of first-quarter GDP
showed the U.S. economy slowed dramatically, growing at a sluggish
0.2%. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect that to
be revised downward to a 1% contraction in Friday's revised
reading.
In commodities markets, U.S. oil futures fell 0.2% to $57.41 a
barrel ahead of weekly oil inventory data due from the Energy
Department at 10:30 a.m. EDT. Gold futures gained 0.1% to $1192 an
ounce.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.129% from
2.137% as prices rose.
In corporate news, shares of Avago Technologies Ltd. rose 3.4%
in premarket trading after the chip maker agreed to buy rival
Broadcom Corp. for $37 billion in cash and stock. Broadcom shares
eased 1% premarket after soaring 22% on Wednesday.
Write to Dan Strumpf at daniel.strumpf@wsj.com
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