Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange on July 15, 2025.
NYSE
U.S. stock futures were little changed on Thursday as traders pored through the latest earnings and weighed the latest in President Donald Trump’s feud with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures hovered near the flatline.
PepsiCo and GE Aerospace traded higher in the premarket after both companies posted better-than-expected earnings. United Airlines also posted an earnings beat, but shares were down 1%.
The earnings season is off to a strong start. More than 45 S&P 500 components have reported thus far, with 87% of those exceeding analyst expectations, FactSet data shows.
Wall Street is coming off a winning session after Trump denied that he was planning to fire Powell from his position as Fed chief.
Stocks initially fell on Wednesday after a White House official said that Trump “likely will soon” fire Powell from his post, with the blue-chip Dow dropping more than 260 points at its session low. The New York Times also reported that Trump had even drafted a letter calling for Powell’s resignation to show House Republicans.
However, equities rebounded after the president downplayed the reports and said he was “not planning on doing it,” although adding that he does not “rule out anything.”
To Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management, Wednesday’s stock rebound indicates that the market may have already moved past Powell’s potential ousting. “The only real piece of information, I would argue, that you got today is that firing Powell is not that big of a deal,” he said to CNBC.
Instead, Green said that at least in the near term, investors would likely continue to direct most of their attention toward upcoming earnings reports as the market’s most important catalyst.
“I would be very surprised if we don’t get relatively positive reports out of the tech leaders. Not impossible, but surprised. Overall, that would suggest that the markets are going to experience some relief associated with earnings season not being as bad as people think,” Green said.
