Traders work on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange on September 9, 2024.
Spencer Pratt | Getty Images
U.S. stock futures were little changed late Thursday as traders tried to shake off September's slump.
S&P 500 Index Futures Trade near the flat line. Futures and Dow Jones Industrial Average Only 0.03% was added, and Nasdaq 100 Futures down 0.02%.
In regular trading Thursday, investors snapped up shares of big tech companies, including NVIDIA,promote S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Index For the fourth day in a row. The broad market index is currently down 0.9% in September. 30 stocks Dow Chemical The stock rose about 0.6% on Thursday, driven by Salesforce and Microsoft.
Wall Street is currently looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's policy meeting to be held on September 17-18, with the market generally expecting the Fed to cut interest rates by 25 basis points. Currently, the Fed's target interest rate is 5.25% to 5.5%.
Economic data reflecting benign inflation also appeared to lift traders' spirits and support a rate cut. The consumer price index in August was 2.5% at an annual rate, the lowest level since February 2021.
“The bottom line is that the U.S. consumer and the economy continue to do well and profits continue to be higher than expected,” Dan Greenhaus, chief strategist at Solus Alternative Asset Management, said Thursday on CNBC's “Closing Bell.”
“So while we had a meaningful sell-off driven by some artificial intelligence companies, the rebound seems entirely justified as these issues don't appear to be broader,” he added.
The three major stock indexes are also expected to post weekly gains, with the S&P 500 rising 3.5% and the Nasdaq expected to rise 5.3%. The Dow is up 1.9% so far this week.
On the economic front, traders will focus on August import price data on Friday morning. Preliminary consumer sentiment data for September is also scheduled to be released.