Dow futures inch higher after blue-chip index posts new record close: Live updates

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose after the blue-chip index closed at a record high, as investors looked ahead to another round of corporate earnings.

Dow futures added 92 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 futures were marginally lower.

In regular trading, the Dow rose 263.24 points, or 0.49%, for a record close and its fifth positive day in a row. The S&P 500 pulled back 0.17% and snapped a four-day win streak. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.83%.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.51%, while the Topix inched higher. The Kospi dropped 1.84% at open, while the small-cap Kosdaq gained 0.15%. Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 added 0.1%.

Strong earnings and renewed optimism over artificial intelligence initially lifted the U.S. market Wednesday, with Nvidia rallying more than 3% after Elon Musk said on SpaceX’s earnings call that the company would use Nvidia chips exclusively for its AI infrastructure. The chipmaker’s climb helped push the Dow to its new high. However, tech stocks pulled back as investors took profits and shares of Advanced Micro Devices and Alphabet struggled.

“Earnings are getting bigger, they’re getting broader,” Katherine Bordlemay, Goldman Sachs Asset Management co-head of Americas client portfolio management, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” “More encouraging is the breadth. We’re seeing double-digit earnings growth coming from almost all sectors in the S&P.”

“This big debate of are we going to have a return on investment from the AI — well we’ve really seen some companies like the hyperscalers show up and say yes,” Bordlemay added. “Margins are starting to expand, backlogs are continuing, so that all continues and … earnings are going to tee us up well.”

Investors have also been encouraged by signs that tensions in the Middle East could ease, which has put oil on a cooling trend in recent days.

However, inflation is still in focus for Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, who said on Wednesday that she is “prepared to act” on an interest rate hike unless signs of continued disinflation emerge.

“With five years of above-target inflation, the risk grows that higher inflation may become entrenched in price- and wage-setting behavior, leading to persistence that would be much harder for us to attack,” she said during a speech in Anchorage, Alaska. “The longer inflation is above target, the more likely this scenario becomes.”

Wall Street is looking ahead to another busy day of earnings Thursday, with Warner Bros. Discovery on deck before the bell. Airbnb and Lyft are slated to report after the bell.

In economic data, weekly jobless claims are due on Thursday morning. The main event will be July’s payrolls report, which will be out on Friday morning.

— CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed reporting.