US Stocks Likely To Open On A Mixed Note After Tesla, Alphabet Earnings: Intel, American Airlines, Honeywell In Focus

U.S. stock futures were fluctuating on Thursday after rallying on Wednesday. Futures of major benchmark indices were mixed.

Alphabet Inc. drove gains as Google Search alone brought in $54.19 billion in the second quarter, and it raised its capital expenditure forecast for 2025 to around $85 billion, citing “strong and growing demand” for its cloud products and services.

Meanwhile, Tesla Inc. dropped after the CEO, Elon Musk, and CFO Vaibhav Taneja warned about the projected impacts from President Donald Trump‘s tax and spending package and the end of the EV tax credit.

Additionally, Trump said that U.S. trading partners will see tariff rates ranging from 15% to 50% at an AI summit hosted by the Hill & Valley Forum and the “All-In” podcast.

The 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.40% and the two-year bond was at 3.89%. The CME Group's FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing a 97.4% likelihood of the Federal Reserve keeping the current interest rates unchanged in its July meeting.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, were slightly higher in premarket on Thursday. The SPY was up 0.0016% at $634.22, while the QQQ advanced 0.19% to $564.89, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Cues From Last Session:

Healthcare, industrials, and energy stocks were among the biggest gainers on the S&P 500 on Wednesday, while utilities and consumer staples bucked the trend and closed lower. Overall, U.S. stocks settled higher, with the S&P 500 recording its 12th record close of the year.

President Trump announced agreements with the Philippines, Indonesia, and, most notably, Japan, while the Financial Times reported an imminent U.S.-EU trade deal, expected to mirror the Tokyo framework. The U.S.-Japan pact raised the baseline tariff on Japanese goods to 15% from 10%, avoiding the previously threatened 25% level.

In corporate news, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. TMO reported better-than-expected second-quarter financial results on Wednesday.

AT&T Inc. T also announced strong financial results for its fiscal second quarter of 2025, surpassing analyst expectations for both revenue and earnings.

On the economic data front, U.S. existing-home sales declined 2.7% from the previous month to an annual rate of 3.93 million units in June.

Insights From Analysts:

Despite a recent uptick in performance, the fundamentals do not support a favorable rating on U.S. small-cap equities, according to Scott Wren, Senior Global Market Strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. Wren expressed a cautious stance, advising clients to temper expectations for the asset class for the remainder of 2025 and into 2026.

“We do not believe the fundamentals support a favorable rating on U.S. Small Cap Equities,” stated Wren, noting that many strategists have struggled to accurately time a resurgence in small-cap stocks relative to their large-cap counterparts over the past few years.

The Russell 2000 Index, a key measure of small-cap performance, has seen a noticeable improvement since the S&P 500 Index hit its year-low on April 7. Since then, the R2K has slightly outperformed the S&P 500, rallying 27.7% compared to the latter’s 27.2% rise as of July 23.

This recent neck-and-neck performance has drawn attention, particularly given the S&P 500’s significant outperformance over the past two years. Over the past four years, the S&P 500 is up nearly 55% while the R2K is largely flat.

Wren attributes the historical underperformance and recent improvement to a combination of “poor fundamentals (in recent years) and market risk tolerance (more recently).” He elaborated that smaller-cap equities typically possess weaker balance sheets and are more sensitive to interest rates, relying heavily on credit.

Wells Fargo Investment Institute has maintained a neutral weighting for U.S. Small Cap Equities for nearly a year. While investors have recently gravitated towards small caps amid a “risk-on” mood and expectations for multiple Federal Reserve interest rate cuts this year, Wren stated, “We, on the other hand, have stuck with our recommendation to lean toward quality large-cap equities and look for the Fed to cut interest rates only one time this year.”

As a result, Wells Fargo suggests investors consider trimming their exposure to U.S. Small Cap Equities, either holding those funds for future reinvestment at lower levels or reallocating them to favored sectors that have recently underperformed, such as Energy, Utilities, and Financials.

Meanwhile, Ryan Detrick of Carson Research highlighted that July 2025 was going to match an old record from 1950 to 1961 when the S&P 500 index was up for 11 consecutive Julys. This July would mark the 11th consecutive year as well, starting from 2014.

Upcoming Economic Data

Here’s what investors will keep an eye on Thursday:

• The initial jobless claims data for the week ended July 19 will be announced by 8:30 a.m. ET.

• July’s S&P flash U.S. services and manufacturing PMI will be out by 9:45 a.m., and June’s new home sales data will be released by 10:00 a.m. ET.

Stocks In Focus:

• Tesla Inc. TSLA tumbled 6.09% in premarket on Thursday after reporting weaker-than-expected second-quarter financial results. Its revenue of $22.5 billion was down 12% year-over-year. It missed a Street consensus estimate of $22.8 billion. Its earnings per share were $0.40 in the quarter, missing the Street consensus estimate of $0.42 per share.
• Alphabet Inc. GOOG GOOGL rose 2.89% after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter financial results and increasing its investment in capital expenditures in 2025. Its second-quarter revenue of $96.43 billion beat analyst estimates of $93.72 billion. Its earnings of $2.31 per share beat estimates of $2.16 per share.
• American Eagle Outfitters Inc. AEO jumped 16.08% following the launch of a new advertising campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney.
• Intel Corp. INTC was up 0.43% as analysts expect it to report earnings of 1 cent per share on revenue of $11.91 billion after the closing bell.
• American Airlines Group Inc. AAL was down 0.79% as it is expected to report earnings before the opening bell. Analysts estimate earnings of 77 cents per share on revenue of $14.30 billion.
• Honeywell International Inc. HON advanced 1.12% as analysts expect it to report earnings of $2.65 per share on revenue of $10.02 billion before the opening bell.
• Opendoor Technologies Inc. OPEN zoomed 8.73% continuing to be driven by retail investor hype and viral buzz across and notable backing from Eric Jackson, founder of EMJ Capital.
• Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. CMG dropped 10.44% as its earnings per share exceeded expectations by $0.01, but its revenue fell short of estimates. The company also adjusted its 2025 same-store sales forecast to be flat, which led to the stock price decline.
• T-Mobile US Inc. TMUS rose 5.16% after a robust second-quarter earnings and the launch of T-Satellite in partnership with Satrlink.

Commodities, Gold, And Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil futures were trading higher in the early New York session by 1.15% to hover around $66.00 per barrel.

Gold Spot US Dollar fell 0.59% to hover around $3,367.29 per ounce. Its last record high stood at $3,500.33 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was higher by 0.14% at the 97.3490 level.

Asian markets ended on a mixed note on Thursday as Japan's Nikkei 225, South Korea's Kospi, Hong Kong's Hang Seng, and China’s CSI 300 indices advanced. However, India's S&P BSE Sensex and Australia's ASX 200 indices fell. European markets were higher in early trade.

• Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Fuels AT&T’s 5G, Fiber Expansion: ‘We Intend To Invest More Rapidly In Next Generation Networks’

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