Indexes

A market that spent Wednesday afternoon recoiling from the Federal Reserve walked into Thursday with two reasons to buy it back: a signed peace deal with Iran and a chipmaking headline out of Washington. Stock futures point higher across the board, with the Nasdaq 100 leading as the technology names that did the most damage yesterday lead the bounce.

Wednesday's close was broadly lower, with the hawkish projections doing the work: the S&P 500 fell 1.21% to 7,420.10, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.34% to 26,021.66, and the Dow gave back 0.98% to 51,492.55, surrendering the record it had set a day earlier. The Russell 2000 held up best, off 0.72%. Overnight the mood flipped, helped by record closes across much of Asia.

In the News

Drivers

1. The morning's data is the first labor read since the Fed turned, and it cuts both ways. A low claims print and a strong rebound in the Philadelphia factory index would harden the case the dots just made for a hike, while a soft pair would hand the doves something to point to. The futures already price a tightening by October, so the surprise risk runs toward any number that pulls that timing forward.

2. Accenture is the tell for the whole IT-services group. The bookings miss, not the earnings beat, is what sent the shares down by double digits, and it lands squarely on a debate that has been building all month: whether generative AI is adding to consulting demand or quietly replacing it. The read across to IBM, Cognizant, Infosys and Capgemini is direct, and the 8:00 ET conference call is where management will have to frame both the federal drag and the trajectory of its AI bookings. For a sector that has leaned on the AI story for a year, a soft order book from its largest pure-play is the kind of evidence that re-rates more than one stock.

3. Then there is the long-weekend math. With cash markets closed Friday for Juneteenth, every position taken today rides through a three-day break while the Strait of Hormuz reopening stays unconfirmed and the nuclear talks run a fresh 60-day clock. Will traders pay up to carry that risk, or lighten into the bell?

SPY daily: the benchmark reopens back above the 20-day average it surrendered Wednesday.

QQQ daily: futures point the Nasdaq 100 back up after it held its 20-day line.

Accenture daily: the gap lower carries the stock to ground last seen in 2023.

Micron daily: the semiconductor bid carries it back near its recent highs.

JPMorgan daily: record-area ground holds as the front-end yield jump helps the banks.

Rates, FX, Commodities

The repricing that rocked stocks on Wednesday showed up mostly at the front of the yield curve, where the two-year jumped on the dot plot while the long end hardly stirred. The dollar held the ground it gained, and crude kept sliding as the Iran deal drained what was left of the conflict's risk premium.

Gold spent the night doing something odd for a peace-deal session, climbing as much as 1.7% to $4,322 an ounce before surrendering nearly all of it by the US pre-market, per Bloomberg. A fresh check this morning puts spot near $4,290, a shade above Wednesday's close. Crude needs no such explaining: with the Strait set to reopen, Brent is closing in on the levels it held before the fighting began.

Technicals

Wednesday's hawkish repricing pushed the major averages back beneath support. At 7,420.10 the S&P 500 finished below the 20-day line, which sits at 7,475, though futures point it back over that mark at the open; the 50-day at 7,260 is the next floor, and the June 3 record of 7,609.78 stands overhead. The Nasdaq 100 closed a whisker above its own 20-day, at 29,650, and reopens roughly 1.6% higher. In rates, the ten-year sits at 4.46%, the upper end of a three-week range, and a push through the 4.55% spring high would open the door to higher yields; the two-year, which leapt about 14 basis points on the projections, holds near 4.19%. The single sharpest move this morning belongs to Intel, charted by the hour below.

Intel's overnight surge on the Apple chip pact, shown by the hour.

Breakouts & Breakdowns

Breakouts

Intel (INTC) — vaults toward a record near $131 in the pre-market on the Apple partnership, clearing its prior high with the 200-day average far below; that old peak is now the first marker on any pullback.

JPMorgan (JPM) — holds record-area ground near $334 as the jump in the two-year brightens the outlook for lending margins; the 20-day average is the first support beneath the move.

Breakdowns

Accenture (ACN) — gaps roughly 10% lower toward $140 after the bookings miss, slicing through every moving average to ground last seen in 2023, with little visible support until the prior cycle's lows.

Chevron (CVX) — presses the lower edge of its range near $177 as crude probes three-month lows, leaving the spring floor near $168 as the next marker below.

Top Movers

Gainers

Intel (INTC) jumped about 9% before the bell, on track for a record high, after President Trump said on Truth Social that Apple had agreed to design and build chips with the company in the United States. The deal hands Intel's foundry the kind of anchor customer it has lacked, validating a manufacturing push that has trailed Taiwan's TSMC and building on the government's 10% stake and the recent start of 18A production. The lift carried across the chip group, with Micron, Advanced Micro Devices and TSMC's US-listed shares all higher and the US-reshoring theme back in favor.

Micron (MU) rose about 4% to near $1,087, riding the broad semiconductor bid with AI-memory demand the backdrop. The move keeps it pressing toward the highs of its recent range.

Airlines caught a clean bid as crude slid, with United (UAL) up about 2.7% and Delta (DAL) up about 2%. A reopened Strait of Hormuz promises relief on the jet fuel whose price spiked through the war, the single biggest variable cost the carriers face.

JPMorgan (JPM) edged up about 0.3% to near $334, holding the record-area ground the banks won on Wednesday as the front-end yield jump widened lending margins.

Losers

Accenture (ACN) tumbled about 10% toward $140 even though the quarter beat on earnings. Fiscal third-quarter profit came in at $3.80 a share against a $3.71 estimate, and revenue of $18.7 billion rose 6% in dollars, in line with expectations, with operating margin up 20 basis points to 17.0%. The trouble sat in new bookings of $19.3 billion, down from $19.7 billion a year earlier and well off the $22.1 billion record set last quarter, which feeds the case that generative AI is eating into demand for traditional consulting and IT services rather than adding to it. Management trimmed the full-year revenue outlook to 3% to 4% local-currency growth, with a roughly one-point drag from federal work, and the selling radiated to peers such as IBM, Cognizant, Infosys and Capgemini.

Energy gave back a little more, with Chevron (CVX) off about 0.5% and Exxon (XOM) down about 0.4% as crude sat at three-month lows, though the oilfield names that fell hardest on Wednesday steadied in the pre-market.

Macro Calendar

The data carries extra weight as the first read on the economy since the Fed signaled it is prepared to tighten. Weekly jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed factory index both land at 7:30 CT, and the Bank of England's decision at 6:00 CT is expected to be a hold.

Earnings Today

Before the open: Accenture (ACN), covered above after its bookings-driven drop, and Kroger (KR). Kroger posted first-quarter identical sales up 1.0% excluding fuel, at the low end of its range on egg deflation, with adjusted earnings of $1.58 a share and its full-year outlook reaffirmed. Jabil (JBL) also reports.

After the close: a quiet slate, with US stock markets shut on Friday for the Juneteenth holiday.