New York, Feb 5, 2026, 06:43 ET — Premarket
U.S. stock index futures were largely flat early Thursday as traders waited for weekly jobless claims and a delayed report on job openings, and weighed Alphabet’s new AI spending plan ahead of Amazon’s results later in the day. By 5:16 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis, futures contracts tied to the index, were down 36 points, or 0.07%, while S&P 500 E-minis were up 9 points, or 0.13%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 78.25 points, or 0.31%. Alphabet fell 2.4% in premarket trading after laying out capital expenditure plans that could nearly double this year, while Qualcomm slid 10.4% and Arm dropped 7%; chip names such as Broadcom rose, and “unforgiving scrutiny over AI capex continues to spook investors,” said Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com. Reuters
The economic calendar has extra bite after a brief partial government shutdown scrambled the flow of U.S. data. The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said the delayed January employment report will be published on Wednesday, Feb. 11, and the January CPI report will now be published on Friday, Feb. 13; the delayed December JOLTS report is due later on Thursday.
That matters because rate expectations have been swinging on the margins, and equities — especially expensive growth stocks — have started reacting more sharply to anything that changes the outlook for financing costs.
On Thursday’s slate, the Challenger job-cut report is due at 7:30 a.m. ET, followed by weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET and the JOLTS data at 10:00 a.m. ET. Fed speakers include Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic at 10:50 a.m. ET, with Governor Lisa Cook scheduled later at 6:30 p.m. ET, alongside a run of Treasury announcements.
Economists expect initial jobless claims to edge up to 212,000 from 209,000, with continuing claims seen around 1.85 million, according to Trading Economics. The JOLTS report — the government’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey — is expected to show job openings at about 7.2 million, versus 7.146 million previously.
Wednesday’s session set the tone. The S&P 500 fell 0.51% to 6,882.72 and the Nasdaq dropped 1.51% to 22,904.58, while the Dow rose 0.53% to 49,501.30 as investors sold tech and rotated elsewhere; AMD tumbled 17% and the PHLX semiconductor index fell 4.4%. “The market is suddenly skeptical and concerned about it,” said Jed Ellerbroek, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital, while GuideStone Funds portfolio manager Josh Chastant said, “We’re a bit bearish on software in general.” Investing.com
But the shutdown-related reshuffle is a wildcard. Some releases arrive with lag, some come with revisions, and a surprise in claims or job openings can push markets hard even if the broader trend is unchanged.
Investors are also trying to sort the labor signal from the AI noise: whether companies slow hiring as they ramp capital spending, or whether demand holds up and the Fed stays cautious.
After Thursday’s jobless claims and the delayed JOLTS report, the next big test is the rescheduled January employment report, now set for Feb. 11 at 8:30 a.m. ET.
