Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures rise ahead of key inflation data, with Apple and Amazon to report
Breaking News
US stock futures jumped on Thursday as investors welcomed strong earnings from Meta and Microsoft that boosted faith in the AI trade, while a rush of tariff deals eased trade-war fears on the eve of President Trump's deadline. S&P 500 futures rose 1%, while those on the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 0.3%.
Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 climbed 1.3% after quarterly reports from Meta and Microsoft wowed Wall Street late Wednesday, sending the stocks of both tech giants soaring. Yahoo Finance reports.
EdgeUp
👩💻 Microsoft set for $4 trillion market cap after posting Q4 beat on top and bottom line on cloud, AI strength:
Microsoft reported its fiscal fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday, beating analysts' expectations on the top and bottom lines on the strength of its cloud revenue. Its stock climbed around 9% in premarket trading, setting the company on track to become the second in the world to reach a $4 trillion market valuation.
"Cloud and AI is the driving force of business transformation across every industry and sector," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement.
“We’re innovating across the tech stack to help customers adapt and grow in this new era, and this year, Azure surpassed $75 billion in revenue, up 34%, driven by growth across all workloads.” Yahoo Finance reports.
🤖 Meta beats Q2 expectations, stock jumps on better-than-anticipated Q3 outlook: Meta's stock jumped 12% in premarket trading on Thursday after its second quarter earnings outperformed expectations and the company offered a better-than-expected outlook for Q3.
The Facebook parent said Wednesday it anticipates between $47.5 billion and $50.5 billion in third quarter revenue, well ahead of the $46.2 billion Wall Street was calling for.
For Q2, Meta saw earnings per share (EPS) of $7.14 on revenue of $47.5 billion. Analysts were anticipating EPS of $5.89 on revenue of $44.83 billion, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates. The company saw EPS of $5.16 and revenue of $39.07 billion in the same period last year. Yahoo Finance reports.
📊 Trump hits out at Canada, unleashes flurry of trade surprises:
President Trump criticized Canada on Thursday via Truth Social after it backed a Palestinian statehood, saying the move will make it difficult to strike a trade deal. "Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine.
That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh’ Canada!!!," Trump wrote. Prior to Trump's attack on Canada, the US president unleashed a flurry of deals on Wednesday, which included a trade deal with South Korea.
The agreement includes a 15% tariff rate on imports from the country, while the US will not be charged a tariff, according to Trump's post on Truth Social. "South Korea will be completely OPEN TO TRADE with the United States," the president wrote, adding "they will accept American product including Cars and Trucks, Agriculture, etc." Yahoo Finance reports.
🛢️ Oil giant Shell posts profit beat, keeps share buyback pace steady at $3.5 billion:
Britain’s Shell on Thursday reported better-than-expected second-quarter profit and maintained the pace of its shareholder returns, despite the impact of lower global oil and gas prices.
The energy giant posted adjusted earnings of $4.26 billion for the three months through June, beating analyst expectations of $3.87 billion, according to an LSEG-compiled consensus.
A separate, company-provided analyst forecast had expected Shell’s second-quarter profit to come in at $3.74 billion. CNBC reports.
🎉 Figma prices IPO at $33 a share, raising $1.2 billion: Design-software company Figma Inc. priced its initial public offering at $33 a share late Wednesday, raising more than $1.2 billion.
That price for about 36.94 million shares was above the expected range of $30 to $32 a share, which had been raised from an original range of $25 to $28.
Trading on the New York Stock Exchange is expected to begin Thursday, under the ticker symbol “FIG.” MarketWatch reports.
🎬 'Epic' boost drives Comcast's quarterly results Comcast topped estimates for quarterly revenue and profit on Thursday, driven by a surge in theme park attendance sparked by the May debut of "Epic Universe", growth in its domestic wireless business and a spike in streaming revenue.
Shares of the company rose about 5% in premarket trading. The Central Florida attraction boosted theme park revenue by nearly 19% in the second quarter, to $2.35 billion, even though it was open for about one month into the reporting period. Yahoo Finance reports.
Tech Thursday
OpenAI spearheads one of Europe’s biggest data centers with 100,000 Nvidia chips:
OpenAI on Thursday said it is launching a Stargate-branded AI data center in Norway, marking its first foray into Europe with such a project. British firm Nscale will design and build the site as part of a 50-50 joint venture with Norwegian energy infrastructure firm Aker.
OpenAI will be a so-called “off-taker” in the project, meaning it will effectively buy capacity from the data center. “Part of the purpose of this project is to partner with OpenAI and leverage European sovereign compute to release additional services and features to the European continent,” Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale, told CNBC in an interview on Thursday.
The site aims to deliver 100,000 NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPU) by the end of 2026, “with the intention to expand significantly in the years ahead,” OpenAI said in a press release.
The companies said the data center will run entirely on renewable power and have 230 megawatts of capacity, making it one of the biggest in Europe. Nvidia’s GPUs have become the de facto choice of chips for data centers because of their ability to handle large AI workloads.
Top 5 Movers In Early Pre-Market
(All pricing and percent gains are based on Early Pre-Market from 4:00 AM to 7:00 AM ET) Benzinga reports.
1) $ONCO: Onconetix
Total gain: +73.83%
2) $YMAT: J-Star Holding
Total gain: +41.42%
3) $ALHC: Alignment Healthcare
Total gain: +23.15%
4) $APLD: Applied Digital
Total gain: +23.03%
5) $LRHC: La Rosa Holdings
Total gain: +22.99%
Today’s Economic Dates
Time (ET) / Report / Period
8:15am / ADP employment / July
8:30am / GDPQ 2
8:30am / GDP price index / Q2
Watch & Learn
Yesterday’s Biggest Movers
The closing price of the top three market percent gainers trading near or above $3 on July 30.(All pricing and percent gains are based on regular market trading hours from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET) * Benzinga
1) $REPL: Replimune Group
Total gain: +99.33%
The stock appeared to be moving on no notable news.
2) $BGLC: BioNexus Gene
Total gain: +60.31%
The company announced it has received official notice from The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC confirming it has regained full compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2), which requires a minimum bid price of $1.00 per share. Benzinga reports.
3) $BHVN: Biohaven
Total gain: +22.43%
The stock appeared to be moving on no notable news.
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Today’s Notable Earnings
(Estimate and Actual numbers represent Earnings Per Share in US Dollars)
EXC Exelon 2Q 2025
Before Market Open Estimate: 0.390 Actual: 0.390
KKR KKR & Co 2Q 2025
Before Market Open Estimate: 1.100 Actual: 1.180
KIM Kimco Realty 2Q 2025
Before Market Open Estimate: 0.270 Actual: 0.440
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Parting Thoughts
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- Jack D. Schwager
Sourced in: “The New Market Wizards: Conversations with America’s Top Traders”, by Jack D. Schwager, published in 1992.
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