(Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures were mixed on Thursday as investors assessed earnings from Alphabet and Tesla while focusing on progress in trade deals between the U.S. and its top partners.
Google-parent Alphabet raised its capital spending plans for the year to about $85 billion and predicted a further increase next year, shrugging off uncertainties from U.S. trade policy. Its shares rose 3.5% premarket.
Electric carmaker Tesla, however, painted a gloomy picture, with CEO Elon Musk warning that reduced government support for EV makers could lead to a “few rough quarters” for the company. Its stock dropped 5%.
By 5:57 a.m. ET, S&P 500 E-minis were up 7.75 points, or 0.12%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 85.25 points, or 0.37%.
Dow E-minis were down 136 points, or 0.3%. The blue-chip on Wednesday came just shy of surpassing its all-highs touched in December.
The benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq surged to fresh records as reports of an imminent trade deal between the European Union and the U.S. boosted risk sentiment. Diplomats said the deal would result in 15% import tariffs on the bloc.
Additionally, President Donald Trump’s announcement of a deal with Japan has also aided investor sentiment this week. The pact includes slashing tariffs on goods from the Asian country to 15%.
With the August 1 deadline just a week away, investors expect a flurry of more trade negotiations, given that China and South Korea are also seeking deals to avoid Trump’s hefty duties.
Amid escalating tensions between the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve, the president will visit the central bank later in the day. Trump has been persistently attacking Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting rates and mused publicly about firing him.
The central bank holds its monetary policy meeting next week, with markets widely expecting policymakers to leave interest rates unchanged. Traders see a 62.2% likelihood of a cut in September, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
Later in the day, investors will parse weekly jobless claims and S&P Global’s flash PMI data to examine the health of the economy amid tariff uncertainties.
Among other earnings-related moves, IBM slid 5.25% as its second-quarter earnings failed to impress investors, especially due to its lower-than-expected sales in its mainstay software segment.
Shares of ServiceNow jumped 7.1% after the software firm raised its annual subscription revenue forecast.
(Reporting by Nikhil Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
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