Stock Futures Declined Ahead of the Latest U.S Jobs Data

Stock futures suffered minor losses on Thursday as investors are waiting for new labor-market data to measure the strength of the economic recovery.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 32 points, while S&P 500 futures fell 0.3%. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 0.5%.

Investors are waiting for the most recent data on U.S. weekly jobless claims, which comes out on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. In the previous week, jobless claims reached a fresh pandemic-era low of 444,000.

Shares of Snowflake fell 4% in premarket trading after the data-analytics software company reported widening losses, but it still raised full-year guidance.

Nvidia’s stock dropped about 1% in early trading even after the company earnings and sales for the first quarter both surpassed expectations. The company reported first-quarter results for fiscal 2022 on Wednesday, with sales rising 84% compared with 2020. Nvidia’s earnings came during a period of sustained, robust growth in its business amid a shortage of semiconductors worldwide.

Nvidia’s revenue grew 88% compared to 2020. The company mentioned one very interesting detail. The chip giant said that it believed cryptocurrency miners were partially responsible for its increased revenue.

The company said it expected $6.30 billion in revenue in the current quarter, which would be a 62% increase over last year. The number of GPUs Nvidia makes are important for PC games, artificial intelligence as well as cryptocurrency mining.

The company’s graphics segment, comprised mostly of graphics cards, was up 81% to $3.45 billion in revenue. Broken down by market platform instead of reportable segment, the chip giant said its gaming products were up 106% on an annual basis to $2.76 billion in sales.

Stock futures and important details

Meme stocks, which jumped this week amid a resurgence in speculative trading, were lower in premarket trading. GameStop fell by about 4% and AMC Entertainment lost 6%.

Ford’s stock was up 1% following an upgrade by RBC. The company’s stock rose 8% on Wednesday after unveiling its electric vehicle strategy.

The move in futures followed a relatively quiet session on Wednesday. The S&P 500 added 0.2% in light trading, supported by gains in shares tied to the economic reopening including airlines and cruise line operators. The blue-chip Dow finished the session little changed, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.6%. Trading is anticipated to be muffled ahead of the Memorial Day weekend.