US stock futures remained steady on Thursday after another session of gains on Wall Street, supported by expectations that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will cut interest rates next week.
According to CME's FedWatch, market expectations for a 25 basis point interest rate cut at the Fed meeting next week rose to 89% after the latest data, up from around 87% earlier in the day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.86% to 47,882.90, the S&P 500 rose 0.30% to 6,849.72, while the tech-focused Nasdaq rose 0.17% to 23,454.09.
In other news, the ADP jobs report released yesterday showed a weaker-than-expected reading.
The report showed a surprise 32,000 drop in private sector payrolls, raising expectations that a rate cut is imminent.
Meanwhile, Salesforce shares rose 2% after the company issued a stronger revenue forecast.
Discount retailer Five Below jumped 2% on strong quarterly results, while Snowflake fell more than 7% after the artificial intelligence (AI) cloud provider reported a loss in revenue.
Investors are now focused on earnings reports from Dollar General, DocuSign, HP and several others due on Thursday.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was $15.44 billion, compared with an average of $18.19 billion over the past 20 trading days.
