U.S. stocks looked set to slip on Thursday as investors weighed up a deluge of earnings from companies including Google owner Alphabet and electric car maker Tesla.
Futures tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 145 points, or 0.3%, a day after the blue-chip index closed just shy of a record. S&P 500 futures were flat, and contracts tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 climbed 0.2%.
The Dow’s slide was largely explained by a big drop in one of its 30 constituents, IBM. Shares were down 5% in after-hours trading after the company posted its quarterly earnings. While the results topped analysts’ expectations, many investors felt the stock was due a pullback.
Second-quarter earnings season is now in full swing, but investors will also be keeping a close eye on trade developments. President Donald Trump unveiled a trade pacts with Japan earlier this week, and the market is hoping for more deals ahead of an Aug. 1 deadline, when the White House has pledged that tariff rates will snap higher.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note climbed 2 basis points to 4.41% on Thursday. The U.S. dollar ticked up 0.1% against a weighted basket of its peers, and gold prices dropped 0.5% to $3,381 an ounce.