Equity Futures Hold Steady Pre-Bell as US Initial Jobless Claims Beat Analyst Range

08:49 AM EST, 12/24/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Traders continued to maintain caution during the holiday season as US equity futures stayed in a holding pattern during Wednesday's premarket while a better than expected jobs report could cheer the spirits of investors.

Dow Jones equity futures inched down 0.1 %, Nasdaq declined 0.1 %, and S&P 500 futures were 0.1% lower.

Thin trading volume continued ahead of a shortened Christmas Eve trading session and Christmas Day market closure on Thursday.

Initial weekly jobless claims came in at a surprisingly upbeat 214,000, compared with last week's 224,000. That's not only lower than the consensus expectation of 225,000, but beats the analyst range of 217,000 to 235,000.

Oil prices held steady, with Brent futures flat at $62.44 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate crude up 0.1% to $58.52.

Global markets were mixed. Japan's Nikkei 225 declined 0.1%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.2% and China's Shanghai Composite was 0.5% higher.

The UK's FTSE 100 closed down 0.2% in a shortened trading session while Germany's DAX was closed for the holidays.

Among premarket winners, UiPath (PATH) advanced 8.4% following news that it has been added to the S&P Midcap 4oo index, while Dynavax (DVAX) was up 40.6% following news it was being bought for $2.2 billion by Sanofi (SNY) .

Nike (NKE) shares were up 2.1% after a disclosure that Apple (AAPL) Chief Executive Tim Cook has bought $3 million in shares.

Among losers was Intel (INTC) , down 2.6% after Reuters reported that Nvidia (NVDA) has decided not to proceed with testing of chip production using Intel's (INTC) 18A process.

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