Source: Sharecast
As of 1200 GMT, Dow Jones futures were down 0.31%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.18% and 0.20% weaker, respectively.
The Dow closed 74.37 points lower on Wednesday, taking a small bite out of gains recorded in the previous session.
The Federal Reserve approved a second consecutive interest rate cut overnight, lowering its benchmark borrowing rate by 25 basis points to a range of 3.75%–4.00%, though chair Jerome Powell unsettled markets by signalling uncertainty over a further move in December.
The decision was backed by a 10–2 vote from the Federal Open Market Committee, with Governor Stephen Miran favouring a larger half-point cut and Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid preferring no change. The Fed also said it would end its quantitative tightening programme on 1 December.
While policymakers had previously indicated the potential for three cuts in 2025, Wednesday's statement offered no guidance on the December meeting. Powell cautioned against assuming another reduction was guaranteed, despite market expectations for further easing amid signs of labour market softness and slowing growth.
In the corporate space, attention was also on a flurry of earnings from so-called "Magnificent Seven" firms after the close, with Alphabet revealing quarterly revenues had topped $100bn for the first time, while Meta Platforms warned that expenses would be significantly higher in 2026 than this year, and Microsoft topped Q1 earnings estimates, boosted by solid cloud revenues.
In terms of Thursday's earnings, Mastercard and Eli Lilly will report before the open, while Apple and Amazon were both slated to published their latest quarterly earnings after the close.
Traders were also eyeing a high-stakes meeting between Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, with hopes the talks would shed light on the state of US-China relations amid ongoing trade tensions.
No major data points were scheduled for release on Thursday, with the Federal Government shutdown stretching into its 30th day, second only to the 2018-19 shutdown, which lasted a total of 35 days.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
