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U.S. equity futures edged lower Thursday, with Micron Technology weighing heavily on tech shares, as investors treaded cautiously into the final trading days of the second quarter focused on inflation data and Treasury bond yields.
Stocks ended higher on Wednesday, with Amazon (AMZN) hitting a fresh record high and passing the $2 trillion mark for the first time ever, even as Treasury yields nudged higher following a $70 billion auction of new 5-year notes.
Another benchmark auction, with $70 billion of 7-year paper on sale, will likely keep yields elevated into Friday’s PCE inflation reading, although weekly jobless claims data and a third estimate of second quarter GDP are due prior to the start of today’s session.
Benchmark 10-year notes were last seen trading at 4.335%, with 2-year notes pegged at 4.751% heading into the start of the New York trading session.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, was marked 0.14% lower at 105.905, but still within touching distance of the highest levels in two months.
Amazon shares joined the $2 trillion club on Wednesday after hitting a fresh record high and extending the leadership of the so-called Magnificent 7.
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On Wall Street, Micron (MU) shares slumped 5.6%, pulling chipmakers such as Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) lower as well, after it issued a muted near-term sales and profit forecast that offset a stronger-than-expected third quarter update.
Bank shares were also in focus, with JPMorgan slipping 0.03% and Citigroup rising 0.47%, following the results of the Federal Reserve’s annual stress tests of the country’s biggest lenders.
The Fed said all 31 banks were able to withstand a hypothetical scenario of surging unemployment and a collapse in real estate prices, paving the way for dividends and buybacks over the second half of the year.
Heading into the start of the trading day, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 suggest a modest 7 point opening bell decline, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average indicating a 60 point pullback.
Premarket declines for Micron and Nvidia have the tech-focused Nasdaq called 432 points lower.
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In Europe, the regional Stoxx 600 benchmark slipped 0.17% in Frankfurt, with Britain’s FTSE 100 down 0.24% in London, in a muted session for stocks heading into this weekend’s parliamentary elections in France.
Overnight in Asia, Japan’s Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki issued a direct warning on currency intervention after the yen hit a fresh 38-year low of 160.88 against the U.S. dollar, pulling the Nikkei 225 0.82% lower in Tokyo.
The region-wide MSCI ex-Japan benchmark, meanwhile, was marked 0.4% lower heading into the close of trading.
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