Opening Comment — Thursday, January 29, 2026
DJIA: 49,015.60, up 12.19
S&P 500: 6,978.03, down 0.57
NASDAQ: 23,857.45, up 40.35
Stocks higher ahead of trade data
Stock futures are higher Thursday morning ahead of today’s unemployment claims data, along with November’s trade data and factory orders. As of 7:13 AM ET, the Dow is rising 0.1%, while the S&P 500 is up 0.2%. The Nasdaq 100 is also increasing 0.2% relative to fair value on the GLOBEX.
U.S. equities were mostly unchanged on Wednesday as the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) opted to keep policy rates unchanged yesterday. The Dow was little changed, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2%. The S&P 500 was little changed with four of 11 sectors finishing in positive territory. The Energy sector was the top performer, rising 0.7%, while the Real Estate sector was the bottom performer, falling 0.9%.
On the data front, the finalized readings of third-quarter nonfarm productivity growth and unit labor costs are expected to come in at 4.9% quarter-over-quarter and an annualized decline of 1.9% pace, respectively, both unchanged from the prior readings. Initial jobless claims for the week ending January 24 are expected to come in at 205,000, higher than the prior week’s 200,000, while continuing claims are expected to rise slightly to 1.850 million for the week ending January 17 from the prior week’s 1.849 million. The U.S. trade deficit is expected to widen in November to $44.0 billion from the prior month’s $29.4 billion, with exports forecasted to fall 1.7% month-over-month (MOM) and imports projected to rise 2.3% MOM. Factory orders for November are expected to have increased 1.6% MOM versus the prior month’s decrease of 1.3%, while November’s finalized durable goods orders are also slated for release. The finalized November reading of wholesale inventories is expected to show an increase of 0.2% MOM, similar to the prior reading, while November’s wholesale trade sales is expected to decrease 0.1% MOM versus the prior month’s decrease of 0.4%.
Across the pond, European stocks are mostly higher in mid-day trading as the eurozone’s M3 (a broad measure of the money supply) for December expanded by 2.8% year-over-year, less than projections. The bloc’s finalized consumer confidence for January was unchanged from the prior reading.
Overnight in Asia, stocks were mostly higher as Australia’s fourth-quarter Export Price Index increased by 3.2% quarter-over-quarter (QOQ), while the Import Price Index rose by 0.9% QOQ. Meanwhile, Japan’s consumer confidence index unexpectedly rose in January.
In FOREX trading, the U.S. dollar is slightly lower following the Federal Reserve holding their policy rates steady.
Over in the commodity pits, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is 2.6% higher at $64.83/barrel following concerns of a U.S.-Iran conflict.
In the metals complex, gold is 2.0% higher at $5,522.89/ounce following a weakening U.S. dollar.