Wall Street Futures Steady as Apple and Tesla Struggles Shape New Year Market Sentiment

U.S. stock futures remained steady Thursday evening following a weak start to 2025, with Apple and Tesla leading declines on Wall Street. Slower rate cut expectations and economic uncertainty further pressured sentiment.

Wall Street Futures Show Stability Despite Apple and Tesla Losses

After a rough start to 2025 on Wall Street due to losses in tech giants Apple and Tesla, U.S. stock index futures leveled out on Thursday evening.

Whilst Wall Street indices were still resting on outstanding gains for 2024, mood took a hit due to expectations of slower interest rate cuts and uncertainty about policy under incoming President Donald Trump.

At 18:15 ET (23:15 GMT), the S&P 500 Futures were unchanged at 5,917.75 points, while the Nasdaq 100 Futures were unchanged at 21,171.75 points. At 42,694.0 points, the Dow Jones Futures saw minimal movement.

Apple Faces Challenges in Key Chinese Market

Per Investing.com, in after-hours trading, Apple Inc. lost 0.2% of its value, while Tesla Inc. gained 0.5%. On Thursday, the two were the most significant factors on Wall Street.

In response to increased competition and slow sales in China, Apple, developer of the iPhone, announced discounts of up to 500 yuan ($68.50) on its flagship products during the session, sending the stock down 2.6%.

In November, Apple's sales in China were similarly disappointing, leading UBS analysts to caution that the company would fall short of December sales projections. Apple has been experiencing some pain in the Chinese market as of late because of increased competition from local companies like Huawei and Xiaomi.

Tesla’s Delivery Miss Highlights Shifting EV Market Dynamics

After electric vehicle producer Tesla's fourth-quarter deliveries fell short of estimates, the stock dropped 6.1% during Thursday's session.

Laggard Tesla had its first yearly drop in deliveries in more than ten years as a result of lower demand in North America and Europe and more competition in China.

The delivery data highlighted the need for Tesla expanding its business into autonomous driving and artificial intelligence in response to declining demand for electric vehicles and narrowing profit margins.

Mixed Economic Data Adds Pressure to Wall Street

A downward revision in the Atlanta Federal Reserve's gross domestic product forecasts for the fourth quarter also put pressure on Wall Street indices. This indicated that the world's largest economy cooled down even further towards the end of 2024.

The opposite was true, though, as the weekly claims numbers for unemployment were lower than anticipated, suggesting that the job market was still strong.

Concerns that the Federal Reserve will be able to reduce interest rates at a slower pace this year were heightened by the jobless claims report. In 2025, the central bank hinted at a more measured easing program due to worries about persistent inflation.

Based on this idea, the Wall Street indices had a poor start to the new year. Relative to the NASDAQ Composite, the S&P 500 dropped 0.2% to 19,280.75 points, and the NASDAQ down 0.2% to 5,896.60 points. A decline of 0.4% brought the DJIA to 42,392.27 points.