NEW YORK, Jan 8, 2026, 08:52 EST
- U.S. stock index futures edged lower ahead of the opening bell, pulling back from a record-setting run.
- Weekly jobless claims rose and investors kept focus on Friday’s monthly U.S. jobs report.
- Defense shares jumped after Trump floated a $1.5 trillion 2027 military budget, while Apple and Tesla fell again.
U.S. stock index futures slipped on Thursday, cooling after the S&P 500 and Dow briefly touched fresh highs a day earlier, while defense shares jumped on new budget talk from President Donald Trump. Futures contracts, which track expected moves in the cash indexes, showed the Dow, Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 down about 0.4%, 0.3% and 0.2% in premarket trading. Alphabet was up nearly 1% after overtaking Apple for No. 2 in market capitalization — the market value of its shares — with Apple down more than 1%. 1
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 0.34% to 6,920.93 and the Dow slid 0.94% to 48,996.08, ending lower after intraday record highs, while the Nasdaq gained 0.16% to 23,584.28 as investors rotated back into AI names. “Investors have come into 2026 with a similar playbook to last year: Buy tech and forget about it,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive of Longbow Asset Management. The S&P 500 is trading at about 22 times expected earnings, above its five-year average of 19, LSEG data show. 2
Investors now have one eye on Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report — the government’s monthly jobs count excluding farm work — after data releases were disrupted by a 43-day federal government shutdown. Job openings fell by 303,000 to 7.146 million in November and hiring eased, adding to signs that demand for labor is fading. Economists polled by Reuters expect payrolls rose about 60,000 in December and the unemployment rate eased to 4.5%. 3
Weekly initial jobless claims rose 8,000 to 208,000 for the week ending Jan. 3, the Labor Department said. The number of people receiving benefits after an initial week — a proxy for how quickly the jobless find work — rose to 1.914 million for the week ending Dec. 27. 4
Big stocks were mixed again before the bell. Apple was down more than 1% and Tesla fell nearly 1%, while Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman jumped about 8% after Trump called for a sharply higher military budget, even after his earlier threat to curb dividends and stock buybacks — when companies repurchase their own shares. The 10-year Treasury yield, a benchmark that feeds through to many loan rates, ticked up to about 4.17%, with oil prices near $57 a barrel and bitcoin just under $89,900. 5
Trump’s budget talk lifted defense shares, but it also revived questions about how quickly his plans can translate into spending. He said the 2027 U.S. military budget should be $1.5 trillion, far above the $901 billion approved by Congress for 2026, and vowed to block dividends and buybacks by defense contractors until weapons production speeds up. “While details are unclear and implementation cumbersome, a move towards more government intervention would create uncertainty and add to some risk premium in the markets,” said Mohit Kumar, an economist at Jefferies. 6
The labor picture feeds straight into rate bets. The Chicago Fed estimated the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.6% in December; the official reading is due Friday and economists expect 4.5%. Markets price about a 10% chance of a Fed rate cut at the Jan. 27-28 meeting, rising to about 55% by the April meeting. 7
Yahoo Finance’s live coverage said the stock rally was losing steam as “growing risks” crept back into view after the latest retreat from record levels. 8
