US stock futures were muted as a holiday-shortened week and downbeat month drew to a close and as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange resumed trading following a data center glitch.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) were up 0.1%, while those on the S&P 500 (ES=F) added 0.2%. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) rose 0.3%.
The CME Group restored operations after a long outage disrupted live trading in futures and options across several markets worldwide, including US Treasurys and US crude oil. Individual stocks appeared to trade without problems. The disruption lasted until 8:30 a.m. ET, when CME said it resolved the outage.
Stocks have rebounded sharply this week as traders ramped up bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its meeting in December, less than two weeks away. Renewed faith in the AI trade provided a tailwind for tech names in the run-up to Thursday’s trading shutdown for the Thanksgiving holiday.
But when trading resumes on Friday, the Wall Street indexes will be staring down a losing month. A sharp cooldown in megacap tech names has led to a decline for November, as investors reassessed how quickly AI-driven businesses can translate hype into sustainable profits.
By Wednesday’s close, both the Dow and S&P 500 were slightly lower for the month, on track to end a six-month winning streak. The Nasdaq, down 2% so far, is on track to snap a seven-month run of gains.
As November wraps up, analysts are rolling out their stock-market predictions for the year ahead. Deutsche Bank has set a target for the S&P 500 of 8,000 by the end of 2026, at the highest end of forecasts. HSBC and JPMorgan expect the benchmark index to hover around the 7,500 mark.
Markets will close early on Friday, at 1 p.m. ET, with no major earnings or economic data releases on the docket.
LIVE 7 updates
