U.S. stock futures rose on Thursday, as the Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, and the Dow Jones indices advanced, following Wednesday’s lower close.

Investors are closely watching the upcoming May PPI release, along with the weekly jobless claims, before the opening bell.

Middle East tensions have escalated significantly as the U.S. and Iran traded direct military strikes, following warnings from President Donald Trump that Tehran would “pay the price” for stalled peace talks.

The renewed hostilities have severely disrupted regional stability, prompting neighboring countries like Kuwait to temporarily close their airspace amid incoming Iranian attacks.

Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.53%, and the two-year bond was at 4.12%. The CME Group's FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing a 98.3% likelihood of the Federal Reserve leaving the current interest rates unchanged during June’s meeting.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, respectively, were higher in premarket on Thursday. The SPY was up 0.81% at $731.39, while the QQQ advanced by 1.38% to $703.29.

Stocks In Focus

Oracle

• Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) dropped by 8.87% in premarket on Thursday despite better-than-expected results for the fourth quarter, as its remaining performance obligations rose and the CFO predicted lower gross margins for the fiscal year 2027.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that ORCL maintains a strong price trend in the medium and short terms but a weak trend in the long term, with a poor value score.

Oxford Industries

• Oxford Industries Inc. (NYSE:OXM) fell 6.61% as it reported mixed results for the first quarter. The company raised its FY2026 earnings guidance, while narrowing its sales outlook.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that OXM maintains a strong price trend in the long, short, and medium terms, with a poor growth score.

CoreWeave

• CoreWeave Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) was 1.35% higher as it announced on Wednesday its intention to offer $3.5 billion in aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2032 in dollar and euro denominations.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that CRWV maintains a weak price trend in the long, short, and medium terms.

Visa

• Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was up 0.37% as it announced a partnership with OpenAI for AI agent payments.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that V maintains a strong price trend in the medium and short terms but a weak trend in the long term, with a solid quality score.

Adobe

• Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) gained 0.39% as Wall Street expects it to post quarterly earnings of $5.82 per share on revenue of $6.46 billion after the closing bell.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that ADBE maintains a weak price trend in the long, medium, and short terms, with a poor value score.

Cues From Last Session

Sectors that gained and lost on Wednesday saw most S&P 500 industries close on a negative note, with industrials, materials, and information technology stocks recording the biggest losses. However, consumer staples and energy stocks bucked the overall market trend, closing the session higher.

Insights From Analysts

BlackRock maintains an overweight stance on U.S. equities, supported by “contained damage to global growth from the Mideast conflict and strong earnings expectations – particularly in tech.”

A primary driver of this optimism is the artificial intelligence boom, which BlackRock believes is “lifting U.S. corporate earnings, underpinning our U.S. equity overweight.” The firm specifically favors “AI beneficiaries,” such as infrastructure and semiconductor equipment.

Conversely, BlackRock expects persistent macro challenges for the broader economy. It is closely monitoring the transition to new Federal Reserve leadership, noting that they are “closely watching how new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh will address this mix of strong jobs growth, an uptick in job vacancies, and mounting wage pressure.”

Furthermore, sticky price pressures remain a structural concern, with BlackRock warning that “macro anchors investors have relied upon – like stable inflation expectations – are lost.”

Due to this persistent inflation and rising rates, they are underweight long U.S. Treasuries, advising investors to build portfolios around exposures rather than traditional asset class labels.

Upcoming Economic Data

Here's what investors will be keeping an eye on Thursday.

• Initial jobless claims for the week ending June 6, along with May’s producer price index and core PPI data, will all be released by 8:30 a.m. ET.

Commodities, Crypto, And Global Equity Markets

Crude oil futures were trading lower in the early New York session by 1.03% to hover around $89.10 per barrel.

Gold Spot US Dollar rose 0.36% to hover around $4,086.20 per ounce. Its last record high stood at $5,595.46 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was 0.10% higher at the 100.0500 level.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was trading 2.68% higher at $62,868.61 per coin, as per the last 24 hours.

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, as Australia's ASX 200 and India’s Nifty 50 indices rose, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng, Japan's Nikkei 225, South Korea's Kospi, and China’s CSI 300 indices declined. European markets were mostly higher in early trade.

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