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U.S. equity futures extended gains in early Wednesday trading, following on from a record-setting close last night, as investors looked to a pair of labor market data releases ahead of an early close on Wall Street ahead of the July 4 holiday.
Stocks powered higher again Tuesday, taking the S&P 500 to its first-ever close above the 5,500 point mark and extending the benchmark’s year-to-date advance to around 15.5%.
Tech stocks were once again pacing session gains, lead by a 10.2% advance for Tesla (TSLA) that followed stronger-than-expected second quarter delivery figures, with the Nasdaq rising 0.84% and closing north of the 18,000 point mark and an all-time high.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields were little-changed in overnight dealing at 4.442%, with 2-year notes trading at 4.754%, despite some dovish comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell at a central banking forum in Portugal that added to the case for autumn rate cuts.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told a central banking forum in Portugal that “quite a bit of progress” has been made in slowing inflation.
Stocks are set for a modest gains to finish out the first half of the holiday-shortened week, with markets set to close at 1:00 pm Eastern time ahead of tomorrow’s July 4 holiday celebrations, with investors focused on payroll processing group ADP’s June employment report and weekly jobless claims from the Labor Department.
The Federal Reserve will also publish minutes of its June policy meeting, but the release is expected at 2:00 pm Eastern time, around an hour after markets are officially closed for the day.
Heading into the start of the trading day on Wall Street, futures contracts tied to the S&P 5000 suggest a 2 point opening bell gain, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average called 55 points to the upside.
The Nasdaq, which is up 20.1% for the year, is priced for a 15 point advance, thanks in part to premarket gains for Nvidia (NVDA) , Apple (AAPL) and Tesla.
Other stocks on the move include Eli Lilly (LLY) , which was marked 0.63% higher at $912.44 each after it won FDA approval for its early Alzheimer’s treatment late Tuesday.
Paramount Global (PARA) shares were also on the move, rising 9.1% to $11.70 each, after reports suggested Shari Redstone and National Amusements have reached a deal to sell their controlling interest to Skydance Media for around $1.75 billion.
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In overseas markets, Britain’s FTSE 100 was marked 0.54% higher ahead of tomorrow’s national elections, which are expected to delivery a huge majority to the left-leaning Labour party and elevated their leader, Kier Starmer, to the position of Prime Minister.
Europe’s Stoxx 600, meanwhile, jumped 0.85% in Frankfurt, with tech stocks leading the advance.
Overnight in Asia, the Nikkei 225 added another 1.26% to remain firmly over the 40,000 point mark in Tokyo, while the region-wide MSCI ex-Japan index rose 0.92% into the close of trading.
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