Stock Market Today: S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 Futures Rise Despite 25 Bps Fed Rate Hike

U.S. stock futures advanced on Thursday, as the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indices rose, following Wednesday’s lower close.

Initial jobless claims for the week ending Sept. 12 fell to 196,000, pointing to continued strength in employment. However, housing data signaled persistent cooling across the residential sector, highlighted by a 2.6% drop in August housing starts to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.275 million units, alongside August pending home sales.

In a unanimous vote, all 12 Federal Open Market Committee members approved a 25-basis-point increase in the federal funds rate, bringing the target range to 3.75%–4.00%.

Amid the Middle East conflict, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf mocked the decision, stating, "you can’t 25bp a chokepoint." He argued that Tehran sets the real risk premium via the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.99%, and the 2-year Treasury bond yielded 4.70% at the last check. The CME Group’s FedWatch tool projections show markets pricing in a 53.1% likelihood of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates after its October meeting.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ: QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, rose in premarket on Thursday. The SPY was up 1.06% at $762.04, while the QQQ advanced 1.41% to $714.67.