Stock Market Today: Dow Futures Gain, S&P 500, Nasdaq Fall As Chip Stock Sell-Off Intensifies

U.S. stock futures were mixed on Thursday as the Dow Jones Index rose while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indices fell following Wednesday's lower close. Global financial markets faced mounting pressure on Thursday as escalating Middle East conflict, highlighted by a cargo ship sinking after striking a mine in the Strait of Hormuz, coincided with a sharp sell-off in Asian chip stocks like SK Hynix. This risk-off sentiment stems from hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data that has stoked aggressive Federal Reserve rate hike fears and raised doubts over funding the artificial intelligence build-out. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 5.09%, and the two-year Treasury bond yielded 4.72% at the last check. The CME Group's FedWatch tool projections show markets pricing in a 29.3% likelihood of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates after its October meeting. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF were lower in pre-market trading on Thursday. The SPY was down 0.23% at $767.83, while the QQQ declined 1.04% to $721.40. Stocks in focus for today are Home bank shares was 1.70% lower in pre-market trading on Thursday, after it reported mixed third-quarter results after the closing bell on Wednesday. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing slipped 2.10% despite delivering a strong third-quarter profit on Thursday, beating estimates as surging demand for AI chips pushed revenue sharply higher. Telefon Aktiebolaget LM Ericsson ADR surged 9.92% in Thursday pre-market after it announced simplification of group structure and changes to the executive team. Rocket Lab slumped 9.77% after its Neutron launch was officially pushed to 2027. SK Hynix ADR sank 6.47%. Following the Asian sell-off, despite a Reuters report that it is making its plans to build a new NAND flash memory factory in the United States conditional on Washington approving export licenses for U.S. chipmaking equipment to expand capacity at its its Dalian China facility. Thank you for watching and make sure to subscribe.