# Dow futures edge higher after further drop in jobless claims

What’s driving the market?

Stocks are stuck in a holding pattern, with investors focused on the Federal Reserve’s slowly shifting rhetoric around when it will begin discussions on pulling back on bond purchases.

On Wednesday, Randal Quarles, the Fed’s vice chairman for supervision, said it would soon be time for Fed officials to begin debating slowing the central bank’s bond purchases, if the economy continues to improve at its current pace. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida also said U.S. central bank officials may be able to begin discussing the appropriate timing of scaling back their bond-buying program at upcoming policy meetings,

Still, long-term Treasury yields remain well below their March peaks “and there’s no sense of panic at all in bond markets about a soon-to-have taper debate at the Fed,” said Raffi Boyadjian, senior investment analyst at XM, in a note.

Trading activity is likely to remain subdued heading into a three-day weekend. U.S. markets will be closed Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.

The S&P 500 index is largely unchanged over the past month, with value indexes substantially outpacing growth, and large-cap stocks beating small-caps, noted Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. Energy, financials and materials have been top performers, while consumer discretionary, technology and utilities are negative.

“As the cycle continues to mature, quality companies on the growth and value spectrum that have strong competitive positions, healthy balance sheets and multiple levers for growth should emerge as leaders, while the expensive ‘story stocks’ on the growth side and deep value could struggle,” he said.

Meme stocks GameStop Corp.
GME,
+15.82%
and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.
AMC,
+19.20%
continued to steal the spotlight, with shares soaring for a third day Wednesday as retail traders piled into what is now another squeeze on hedge funds and other institutional investors shorting the stock. GameStop shares were down 2.9% in premarket trade, while AMC fell 5%.

Weekly data on U.S. jobless benefit claims is due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, with applications for first time unemployment benefits in the week ended May 22 expected to drop to 425,000 from 444,000 a week earlier.

At the same time, a revised look at first-quarter gross domestic product is expected to show the economy grew at an annualized pace of 6.6%. April durable goods orders, also due at 8:30 a.m., are expected to rise 0.9%.

An April pending home-sales index scheduled for 10 a.m. is expected to slow to 1% after a 1.9% March reading.

Which companies are in focus?

• Shares of Nvidia Corp.
  NVDA,
  +0.33%
  were flat in premarket trade after the gaming specialist reported results late Wednesday that broke several quarterly sales records and forecast revenue growth as much as $1 billion above Wall Street estimates for the current quarter amid a global chip shortage.

• Snowflake Inc.
  SNOW,
  +2.30%
  shares fell 3.5% after the software company Wednesday afternoon revealed that losses that were growing at a rate similar to its booming sales totals.

• Okta Inc.
  OKTA,
  +0.97%
  shares dropped 3.8% after the cloud-software company reported fiscal first-quarter results late Wednesday.

• Shares of Workday Inc.
  WDAY,
  +0.21%
  were down 1.1% after the enterprise cloud-software company late Wednesday attributed its first-quarter results to an improving market as companies prepare their businesses for a “post-pandemic world.”

• Burlington Stores Inc.
  BURL,
  +1.99%
  shares rose 2.9% after the discount retailer on Thursday blew past earnings estimates for its fiscal first quarter.

• Best Buy Co. Inc.
  BBY,
  +2.22%
  shares rose 2.8% after the electronics retailer delivered earnings and revenue that topped forecasts and said it sees second-quarter same-store sales up 17%.

• Elf Beauty Inc.
  ELF,
  +4.04%
  late Wednesday reported results that blew past Wall Street expectations for its fiscal fourth quarter and said it expects an increase between 8% and 10% for its sales in fiscal 2022. Shares were down more than 3%.

• Williams-Sonoma Inc.
  WSM,
  +2.58%
  said Wednesday that profit surged in the latest period while revenue rose 42%, reflecting a pandemic boost to home-product sales. Shares rose 4.9%.

• Shares of Zuora Inc.
  ZUO,
  +1.76%
  were up 0.5% after the maker of software for subscription-based businesses delivered results late Wednesday that beat Wall Street expectations.