December S&P 500 futures (ESZ23) are down -0.20%, and December Nasdaq 100 E-Mini futures (NQZ23) are down -0.32% this morning as investors looked ahead to comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell for more clues about the path of interest rates, while also gearing up for U.S. factory activity data.
In Thursday’s trading session, the blue-chip Dow outperformed major benchmarks, underpinned by an over +9% surge in Salesforce Inc (CRM) after the cloud-computing giant reported solid Q3 results and raised its full-year profit forecast. Also, Snowflake Inc (SNOW) gained more than +7% after the data warehousing giant posted upbeat Q3 results and lifted its annual product revenue guidance. On the bearish side, Pure Storage Inc (PSTG) plunged over -12% after the maker of flash array storage products provided below-consensus Q4 and FY24 revenue guidance. In addition, Ford Motor Company (F) fell more than -3% after cutting its full-year adjusted EBIT guidance due to rising labor costs from its new contract with UAW.
