Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on May 18, 2022 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Stock futures were under pressure Thursday, a day after Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced its biggest one-day drop since 2020.
Futures on the Dow fell 430 points, or 1.4%. S&P 500 futures dropped 1.5%, and Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 1.7%.
“It’s a gloomy morning as stocks tumble pretty much everywhere on the planet. The Walmart/Target blow-ups cast an extremely negative pale over the tape, kicking over the modest stability witnessed in markets Thurs-Tues,” wrote Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge.
On Wednesday, the Dow fell more than 1,100 points, marking its worst sell-off in nearly two years. The S&P 500 also suffered its worst one-day decline since June 2020, losing about 4%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 4.7%.
Those losses were driven in part by back-to-back quarterly reports from Target and Walmart that showed higher fuel costs and restrained consumer demand hurting results amid the hottest inflation in decades. Investors will get more corporate earnings to parse through Thursday with companies like BJ’s Wholesale, Kohl’s, Applied Materials and Ross on deck.
Overseas markets followed Wall Street’s lead overnight, with stocks in Japan, South Korea and across Europe all falling.
Stocks have been under pressure all year, as concerns over rising inflation and higher interest rates have sparked sell-offs in risk assets like equities.
“This is continuing the narrative that … we’re going to be meaningfully lower this year in stocks before we find a bottom,” Guggenheim Partners Global Chief Investment Officer Scott Minerd told CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Wednesday.
Initial jobless claims are also slated for release Thursday morning.
