Stock Market Today: Dow Jones Futures Rise, S&P 500 Slips Ahead of NVDA Q2 Earnings and Fed's Preferred Inflation Data

All right, folks, we've got a mixed futures market here ahead of the open, but remember, this is all likely to change when we get the PCE print here coming in about 23 minutes. Now, S&P futures are currently sitting right near unchanged. They're actually down 0.08%, so technically in the red, but very, very close to unchanged. The Dow futures are also very close to unchanged, but slightly in the green, up 0.04%. NASDAQ is our leader today, down by a quarter of a percent, minus 0.25%. So everything pretty flat so far, maybe the calm before the storm, you might want to call it. Quick check in on oil, that's down 2.27%. We're at 80.48 on the crude futures there. Watch that, see if we break into a 70 handle here or 79 handle here. And Bitcoin, that's down 0.66%. Bitcoin futures currently sitting at 78,000, oops, 78,485. So market looks like it's kind of just holding in there and waiting for these data prints. We will stay on top of that as they come. Now, in the meantime, let's take a look at some cues from last session, as well as some insights from analysts. And of course, I'm going to have some stocks in play here for you today. Information technology, communication services, and material stocks led the gains on Tuesday, while energy and consumer staples closed lower as U.S. stocks settled higher with the Dow Jones gaining 150 points for its third straight win amid falling treasury yields. U.S. stock futures were mixed on Wednesday as the Dow rose, but the S&P and NASDAQ slipped a little following Tuesday's higher close. Alongside NVIDIA's high stakes second quarter earnings report after the closing bell, investors are braced for a heavy slate of macroeconomic data before the open, including July's durable goods orders, the second estimate for second quarter GDP, and key consumer spending and PCE inflation metrics all due before the opening bell. Following renewed discussions between Iran and Oman regarding a joint temporary navigational corridor in the Strait of Hormuz, alongside President Trump's announcement that all mines in international waters were cleared despite recent tanker strikes near Oman, the U.S. has begun returning personnel to diplomatic posts in Lebanon, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the 10-year treasury bond yielded 4.64%, and the two-year bond was at 4.19%. The CME Group's Fed Watchtool projections show markets pricing a 36.1% likelihood of the Federal Reserve hiking the current interest rates during its September meeting. Now, again, we've got several stocks in focus here for you today. Our first one is going to be probably the biggest earnings report of the day yesterday. This is going to be Zoom Communications, the ticker ZM. It tumbled 5.2% despite reporting better-than-expected financial results for the second quarter, but issuing a soft guidance for the third quarter. The next stock on our list, arguably our second biggest report last night, was Intuit. The ticker is INTU, and it plunged 11.74% despite reporting upbeat fourth-quarter financial results but issuing fiscal year 27 guidance below estimates. The next stock on our list is going to be Semtec. The ticker is SMTC, and it was 3.91% higher after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter financial results and issued third-quarter guidance above estimates. The next stock on our list is going to be Data Vault. The ticker is DVLT. It jumped 4.75% after NASDAQ granted an extension to regain compliance by February 22nd of next year, 2027. And the last stock on our list is an obvious one. It is NVIDIA. It was three-tenths higher as Wall Street expects it to post quarterly earnings of $2.09 per share on revenue of $92.01 billion after the closing battle today.