U.S. stock futures inched up slightly on Thursday night, following a two-day sell-off for the Dow in the wake of the Federal Reserve's policy update.<\/p>\n
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.08%. Futures for the S&P 500 ticked up 0.13%, while futures for the Nasdaq-100 climbed 0.21%.<\/p>\n
During the regular session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 210 points, or 0.62%, to 33,823.45. The S&P 500 fell 0.04% to 4,221.86. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.87% to 14,161.35.<\/p>\n
The blue-chip Dow has lost 1.9% week to date and the S&P 500 has fallen 0.6%. The Nasdaq has gained 0.65% on the week.<\/p>\n
Commodities prices\u00a0declined sharply\u00a0as China attempts to cool rising prices and the U.S. dollar strengthens. Futures prices for copper, palladium and platinum fell, while U.S. oil prices tumbled more than 1%.<\/p>\n
The highly anticipated decision from the Federal Reserve Wednesday caused a sell-off in equities. The central bank announced it's keeping interest rates unchanged, raised its 2021 inflation expectation to 3.4% and moved planned interest rate hikes forward.<\/p>\n
"Investors may be interpreting the Fed's hawkish tilt Wednesday as a sign that an extended US post-pandemic economic expansion may be a bit harder to achieve in a potentially emerging environment of less accommodative monetary policy," said Goldman Sachs' Chris Hussey.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the Labor Department reported initial jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week, totaling 412,000, an increase of 37,000 from the previous week and higher than the 360,000 estimate.<\/p>\n