Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange on July 2, 2025.
NYSE
U.S. stock futures were little changed on Wednesday night as traders braced for June’s big jobs report.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were fractionally higher. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 21 points, or less than 0.1%.
Earlier in the day, the S&P 500 rose 0.47% to notch a record close. The broad market index also posted a fresh all-time intraday high. The Nasdaq Composite also rallied 0.94% to a record close. The 30-stock Dow trailed behind with a narrow loss of 0.02%.
The moves followed an announcement from President Donald Trump on Truth Social that the U.S. had struck a trade deal with Vietnam, which includes a 20% tariff on imports from the country. Goods that originated in another country but were transferred to Vietnam for final shipment to the U.S. will be levied 40%.
This positive news contrasted dampening sentiment after a report from payrolls processing firm ADP released Wednesday morning showed that private sector hiring decreased by 33,000 last month.
Traders are now awaiting the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ June nonfarm payrolls reading. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect that the economy added 110,000 jobs last month. That compares to May’s gain of 139,000. Economists also see the unemployment rate inching higher to 4.3%, up from 4.2% in May.
If June’s jobs report disappoints, the market could rotate away from more speculative technology stocks into value names, according to Jay Hatfield, founder and CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors.
“Tomorrow could be a little dicey,” he told CNBC. “The tradeoff between tech stocks being down and value going up — a lot of times the overall market will go down because tech stocks are 40% of the market.”
On the other hand, a disappointing report could mean that the Federal Reserve may be more keen to cut rates earlier than previously expected, possibly as early as July, Hatfield added.
Investors are also following along the progress on Trump’s tax megabill, which finally passed the Senate on Tuesday. The bill has returned to the House, where negotiations among Republican lawmakers remain heated.
Thursday will be a shortened trading session, with the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq closing at 1 p.m. ET. U.S. markets are closed on Friday for Independence Day.
