US Futures Slightly Higher
2025-12-04 13:04
By
Joana Taborda
1 min. read
Stock futures in the US were slightly higher on Thursday, with contracts on the three major averages adding about 0.1%, as traders continue to bet the Fed will deliver another rate cut next week.
The odds for such a move currently hold around 89%.
The latest Challenger report reinforced the view of a cooling labor market, with layoffs reaching 71,321 last month, the highest for a November month since 2022 and bringing the year-to-date total to 1.17 million, the largest since 2020.
On the other hand, initial jobless claims fell last week to 191K, the lowest level in more than three years, though the figures include the typically volatile Thanksgiving period.
Megacaps were mostly higher in premarket trading, including Nvidia (0.4%), Microsoft (0.5%), Alphabet (0.6%), Amazon (0.2%), Meta (0.5%) and Tesla (0.5%).
In contrast, Apple and Broadcom were down about 0.1%.
Meanwhile, Salesforce gained 1.7% after the company offered a stronger-than-expected revenue forecast.