Stock futures inch higher after tech slide to start the second half: Live updates

Stock futures inched higher early Wednesday, after investors began the second half with a reduced appetite for technology stocks.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 69 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures were up 0.1% along with Nasdaq 100 futures.

The blue-chip Dow advanced 400 points on Monday, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.8% as traders shunned the high-flying tech stocks that drove the market's second quarter rebound.

The information technology sector of the S&P 500 – whose constituents include Nvidia, Palantir and Advanced Micro Devices – lost more than 1% on Tuesday, as did the communications services sector. Instead, investors gravitated toward health care and materials names. Gains in Amgen, Johnson & Johnson and UnitedHealth lifted the 30-stock Dow.

Elsewhere, President Donald Trump's tax-and-spending bill narrowly passed the Senate on Tuesday. The measure will return to the House, where there are still hold-outs among GOP lawmakers.

“We expect to see more volatility in fixed income, even once they get the bill passed, whatever that looks like,” said Jose Rasco, HSBC Global Private Banking and Wealth Management Americas CIO on “Closing Bell: Overtime.” “That's going to bleed over into the equity markets.”

Still, this turbulence is likely to be short-lived, he said. “Once these things get resolved and once the [Federal Reserve] gets back in gear, there's a lot of upside here,” Rasco said.

Traders are also looking for any progress on trade deals as Trump's 90-day pause on his sharpest tariffs is set to expire next week.

On the economic front Wednesday, investors await ADP's private payrolls report due before the bell. Economists polled by Dow Jones anticipate that private employers added 120,000 jobs in June, up sharply from the gain of 37,000 in May.

The main event in this holiday-shortened week will be June's big jobs report, due Thursday morning.

Tesla rises after Monday's sell-off

Tesla shares ticked 1% higher a day after the EV maker sold off on the renewed feud between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. On Monday, Tesla dropped 5.3%, marking its worst one-day decline since June 5 — when it plunged 14.3%.

Verint rises on Bloomberg report that its in talks with Thoma Bravo over an acquisition

Verint Systems surged 12% in extended trading after Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that the company is in talks with buyout firm Thoma Bravo over a possible acquisition.

The people told Bloomberg that there is no certainty the parties will reach an agreement.

Verint is down 32% in 2025.

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The S&P 500 forms a bullish chart signal

The broad market index has been on a big run – and additional gains may be ahead, according to a key technical pattern.

The S&P 500 formed a “golden cross” on Tuesday, which is when its 50-day moving average crosses above a rising 200-day moving average. Traders view this as a bullish signal for momentum. The last time the broad market index formed a golden cross was in July 2020 as stocks were recovering from the pandemic-induced sell-off.

History suggests that further gains could be around the corner: The S&P 500 has risen on a six-month basis following the past 11 golden crosses. The index has also advanced on a three-month basis after the past nine golden crosses.

However, there are exceptions: After the S&P 500 formed a golden cross in May 1990, it dropped 12% over the next 12 months. The benchmark also formed a golden cross in April 2019, with the index sliding nearly a year later in the throes of the Covid sell-off.

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Short sellers have lost a combined $300 billion since the April lows, S3 Partners says

Short sellers have lost $300 billion or 22% since the stock market bottom on April 8, according to S3 Partners, a researcher that specializes in tracking short selling.

Over the same time, the S&P 500 and Russell 3000 indexes have each risen 24% while the Nasdaq Composite is higher by 33%, S3 said.

Eben with the the latest losses, short interest is still up by $139 billion, or 10.5%, in 2025, according to figures from Ihor Dusaniwsky, S3's head of predictive analytics. By sector, the largest losses since the April bottom (through Friday, June 27) came in technology, down $105 billion, consumer discretionary (-$41 billion) and industrial stocks (-$37 billion). By company, the largest losses in dollar terms were in Nvidia, Tesla and Microsoft.

The most profitable trades for short sellers since the April low came in UnitedHealth Group, Sarepta Therapeutics and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Centene stock plummets after hours

Healthcare stock Centene pulled back more than 20% in extended trading on Tuesday, after the company said it was withdrawing its full-year outlook.

Shares have slipped more than 6% in 2025.

Stock futures are little changed

Stock futures were little changed on Tuesday, after investors took a breather from technology stocks during regular trading hours.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 9 points, or 0.02%. Nasdaq 100 futures lost 0.03%, while S&P 500 futures ticked down 0.04%.