Stock Market Today: S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 Futures Rise Despite 25 Bps Fed Rate Hike— SNAP, LEN, GNRC in Focus

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

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 0.76% at $759.78, while the QQQ advanced 0.98% to $711.65.

Stocks In Focus

Fluence Energy

• Fluence Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNC) dropped 19.9% in premarket on Thursday after it cut its FY26 sales guidance below estimates. The company also named Bernerd Da Santos as chief operating officer.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that FLNC maintains a weak price trend in the long, short, and medium terms.

Generac Holdings

• Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC) surged 32.49% in premarket trading as the company announced a supply agreement with Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) for data center backup generators.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that GNRC maintains a weak price trend in the long, short, and medium terms, with a poor quality score.

Lennar

• Lennar Corp. (NYSE:LEN) was 1.79% lower after missing top- and bottom-line estimates for the third quarter.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that LEN maintains a weak price trend in the long, medium, and short terms, with a good value score.

Snap

• Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) jumped 2.62% in Thursday premarket after the company announced new enterprise partnerships with Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM), Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), and Amazon Web Services to bring computing capabilities to its augmented reality glasses, SPECS, for field service, remote support, and retail work.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that SNAP maintains a weak price trend in the long term but a strong trend in the medium and short terms.

Arm Holdings

• Arm Holdings PLC ADR (NASDAQ:ARM) was 2.67% higher in premarket on Thursday as CEO Rene Haas expressed heightened confidence in the company’s first in-house data center chip, the AGI CPU, achieving its $2 billion revenue target, while speaking to CNBC.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that ARM maintains a weak price trend in the medium and short terms but a strong trend in the long term, with a poor value score.

Cues From Last Session

Energy, financial, and materials stocks recorded the biggest losses while information technology and health care stocks bucked the trend to close higher on Wednesday, as U.S. stocks settled mostly lower.

Insights From Analysts

Bill Adams, Chief U.S. Economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank, projects a hawkish macroeconomic landscape marked by strict monetary tightening driven primarily by persistent inflation and energy price shocks.

Following the Federal Reserve’s unanimous quarter-point rate increase, Adams emphasizes that central bank officials are firmly committed to reaching their target without making excuses.

Highlighting the economic primary driver, Adams notes: “The energy price shock is the biggest known-unknown for policy at the next few Fed decisions. The higher gas and diesel go, and the longer they stay up, the more the Fed will hike.”

Regarding market reaction and interest rates, Adams points out that while the S&P 500 slipped and the two-year Treasury yield rose to long-term highs, the central bank aims to prevent sector-level price surges—like diesel or tech—from broadening into general inflation.

He cautions that while this firm stance is necessary, “practically speaking, it will be hard to achieve while diesel prices are registering new daily record highs.” Consequently, Adams anticipates a elevated interest rate environment, backed by the Fed’s “Headless Dot Plot” signaling further hikes through year-end.

Upcoming Economic Data

Here’s what investors will be keeping an eye on Thursday:

• Initial jobless claims for the week ending Sept. 12, August’s pending home sales, and housing starts will be announced.

Commodities, Crypto, And Global Equity Markets

Crude Oil WTI futures were trading lower in the early New York session by 1.00% to hover around $101.41 per barrel.

Gold Spot US Dollar rose 1.20% to hover around $4,315.40 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was 0.02% lower at the 100.2460 level.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was trading 1.50% higher at $76,403.82 per coin over the last 24 hours.

Asian markets were mixed on Thursday as Japan’s Nikkei 225, India’s Nifty 50, and Australia’s ASX 200 indices rose. South Korea’s Kospi, China’s CSI 300, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng indices fell. European markets were higher in early trading.

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