US pre-open: Futures mixed following Nasdaq's worst session since 2022

Wall Street futures were mixed ahead of the bell on Thursday following the Nasdaq's worst session since December 2022.

As of 1300 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.10%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.17% and 0.44% higher, respectively.

The Dow closed 243.60 points higher on Wednesday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the session 512.42 points lower amid a rotation out of the sector.

Chip makers were amongst the worst performers yesterday amidst news of possible US export restrictions from the Biden administration, while Taiwan Semiconductor also took a hit following comments from presidential candidate Donald Trump that suggested Taiwan should pay the US for its defence.

With big gains for the blue-chip so far this week, Trade Nation's David Morrison said the big question was whether or not the market was getting ahead of itself when it comes to easier monetary policy, just as it did at the beginning of the year.

"Only last month, the Fed’s FOMC indicated that it expects just one 25 basis point rate cut this year, with more cuts to come in 2025," he noted. "The market has gone a long time without any significant pullback, and many observers have argued that one is way overdue. At the same time, identifying a catalyst for a correction has been a fool’s errand. The market is looking forward to looser monetary policy, with scant evidence that the recent moderation in US economic data is anywhere close to indicating a recession. This is despite the Treasury yield curve inversion, which is typically a precursor to a recession, now in place since March 2022."

On the macro front, weekly jobless claims data from the Labor Department will be published at 1330 BST, as will the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's July manufacturing survey.

In the corporate space, Discover Financial traded higher in pre-market following Q2 results that topped expectations, while Beyond Meat was sharply lower on reports that the meat replacement business was set to meet with bondholders to kick off talks regarding a restructuring of its balance sheet.

Domino's Pizza, DR Horton, Snap-On and Netflix were all slated to report earnings on Thursday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com