U.S. stock index futures rose slightly in Wednesday morning trading before the last trading day of the shortened holiday week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures advanced 48 points. S&P 500 futures were up 0.12%, while Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.08%.
The S&P 500 ended Wednesday’s session with little change – up less than 0.1% – after slipping in the final minutes of trading. Still, the benchmark managed to blow a three-day losing streak. The Dow Jones gained 114.32 points, or 0.38%, after climbing more than 270 points by one point during the session. The Nasdaq Composite reached a record high, before erasing those gains and closing 0.29% below.
“It was selling the dominant technology names in the index that weighed in SPX, not a weakness in the broad market,” said Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge in a note. Netflix and Microsoft were among the technology names that declined, falling 2.4% and 1.3%, respectively.
The fall of the end of the day came when investors made profits at the end of the year and President Donald Trump vetoed a broad defense bill. The move came after he called Congress’s $ 900 billion Covid aid package – months in the making – an inadequate “disgrace”. The president especially questioned direct payments, which he said should be increased from $ 600 to $ 2,000.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed with Trump’s request for higher payments and said House Democrats will seek to approve an independent bill by unanimous consent on Thursday.
The main averages are mixed at the end of the reduced holiday weekday. Nasdaq is on track to end the week on a high, while the Dow and S&P 500 are modestly lower for the week. Russell 2,000, which hit a new all-day intraday and closing high on Wednesday, is also higher this week. Amid strength in small business names, the index is on its way to its eighth consecutive week of earnings – the longest weekly winning streak since February 2019.
In terms of data, US unemployment claims totaled 803,000 during the week ending December 19, better than an estimate of 888,000 according to economists polled by Dow Jones. However, the core of durable goods and personal income fell short of expectations in November.
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