Futures contracts tied to the major U.S. stock indexes dipped early Thursday, hours after the NASDAQ Composite clinched its 31st record close for 2020.
Futures for Dow Jones Industrials docked 99 points, or 0.4%, early Thursday, to 26,956.
Futures for the S&P 500 11.5 points, or 0.4%, at 3,304.50.
Futures for the NASDAQ sank 14.75 points, or 0.1%, to 11,077.
The Composite managed to clinch yet another record close for the year and at one point Wednesday traded above 11,000 for the first time.
The major market indexes are having a robust week, the Dow up 2.9%, the S&P advancing 1.7% and NASDAQ ahead 2.3%, since Friday’s close.
Futures crept higher shortly after the start of the overnight session after President Donald Trump said that he would support a plan to provide additional federal aid to the U.S. airlines sector.
Some of the market’s optimism on Wednesday came after reports said that the nation’s top lawmakers are making more material progress toward a coronavirus relief bill.
The most recent sign of compromise came from the White House, which appeared to yield slightly on its opposition to continued federal support for unemployment benefits. The Trump team offered to extend extra federal unemployment insurance into December at $400 per week.
Another 1.423 million workers are expected to have filed first-time claims for state unemployment benefits during the week ended August 1. That would mark a deceleration from the prior week, though still well above any reading prior to the pre-COVID era.
Last week, the government said initial jobless claims rose by 1.434 million during the week ended July 25. That marked the 19th straight week in which initial claims remained above one million.
Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.4% while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index tailed off 0.7%.
Oil prices fell 26 cents to $41.93 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained $23.10 to $2,072.90.