On Thursday, Nasdaq futures indicated a downward trend, following the previous day’s performance where the benchmark S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average reached new all-time highs before experiencing a pullback. Futures for the Nasdaq 100, Dow, and S&P 500 declined by 0.3%, 0.3%, and 0.2%, respectively, following a predominantly lower close on Wednesday. This came after an initial rally at the beginning of the week, which was spurred by the U.S. military’s capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro over the weekend. The tech-heavy Nasdaq concluded the day with a modest increase, thereby extending its winning streak to three consecutive sessions.

Despite an overall decline in futures, defense stocks surged significantly before the opening bell following President Donald Trump’s statement on his Truth Social network that “our Military Budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 Trillion Dollars, but rather $1.5 Trillion Dollars.””Shares of Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and RTX surged a respective 7%, 6.5%, 5.5%, and 4.5% after dropping yesterday when Trump wrote that he ‘will not permit Dividends or Stock Buybacks for Defense Companies.’

Shares of Alphabet were up nearly 1% in premarket trading, a day after the Google parent surpassed Apple for the second-highest market capitalization behind Nvidia, at around $3.9 trillion. Apple shares declined by 0.5%. In the aftermath of earnings announcements, shares of AI data centers provider Applied Digital experienced a notable increase of nearly 7%, whereas those of beer giant Constellation Brands saw a rise of 2%. The 10-year Treasury yield, a key determinant of interest rates across various commercial and consumer loans, remained relatively stable from Wednesday’s closing figure of approximately 4.16%. This stability comes ahead of the release of several economic indicators, including weekly jobless claims, the U.S. trade deficit for October, and third-quarter productivity metrics.

West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, experienced an increase of 0.8%, reaching $56.40 per barrel. Gold futures experienced a decrease of 0.5%, settling at $4,440 per ounce. Bitcoin was trading at approximately $89,900, a decline from the day’s peak of about $91,500. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the value of the greenback relative to a selection of foreign currencies, increased by 0.1% to reach 98.78.