Wall Street was poised to open with losses again Thursday following consecutive days of declines that have brought markets off of record highs.
Futures for the S&P 500 fell 0.3% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched back 0.1%. Nasdaq futures were down 0.4%.
CarMax tumbled nearly 12% after it badly missed Wall Street's second-quarter profit targets as sales declined from the same period a year ago.
Intel continued its climb, with shares rising 2.4% overnight on media reports that the struggling chipmaker is seeking an investment from Apple. Last week, Intel announced that it was getting a $5 billion investment from Nvidia as part of a partnership agreement. In August, the White House said that it had secured a 10% equity stake in the company. Intel shares are up more than 27% since that announcement.
Birkenstock, the sandal maker, jumped close to 5% after it pre-announced fourth-quarter results that included a big increase in year-over-year sales. The company also reaffirmed previous profit guidance.
The U.S. stock market has slowed in recent days after a blistering run since hitting a low in April.
Gains have been fueled by hopes that President Donald Trump’s tariffs won’t derail global trade and that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates several times to boost the U.S. economy.
The rally has been so big that it has raised concerns about stock prices shooting too high and becoming too expensive, particularly if the Fed does not deliver as many cuts to rates as traders expect.
Coming later Thursday are the weekly jobless claims report, data on August existing home sales and the final estimate of how the U.S. economy performed in the second quarter.
On Friday the government releases its consumer spending report for August, which contains the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation.
At midday in Europe, German's DAX tumbled 1.1%, the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.8% and Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.4%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 recovered from earlier losses, closing 0.3% higher to 45,754.93. Minutes from the Bank of Japan’s July meeting, released Thursday, indicated officials were inclined to raise interest rates if economic activity and prices improve.
In Chinese markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 0.1 % to 26,484.68 while the Shanghai Composite index lost less than 0.1% to 3,853.30.
South Korea's Kospi index shed less than 0.1% to 3,471.11. Concerns about competitiveness lingered after the U.S. on Wednesday cut auto tariffs on EU imports to 15% while Korean vehicles remain at 25%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.1% to 8,773.00. India's BSE Sensex fell 0.4% while Taiwan's Taiex seesawed between gains and losses, shedding 0.7%.
