U.S. stock index futures dipped on Thursday as investors shied away from risk-taking after another bout of tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, while geopolitical worries and a cautious Federal Reserve further dented sentiment.

Trump said on Wednesday he will announce fresh tariffs over the next month or sooner, adding lumber and forest products to previously announced plans to impose duties on imported cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.

Market Snapshot

At 7:50 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 124 points, or 0.28%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 15.75 points, or 0.26%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 47.5 points, or 0.21%.

Pre-Market Movers

Alibaba - U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba jumped 11% in premarket trading. The Chinese e-commerce giant topped Wall Street expectations for third-quarter revenue, on strong year-end shopping sales and the success of its strategy to attract cost-conscious consumers.

Palantir - Palantir shares fell 10% on Wednesday, and continued to slide 4.1% in premarket trading on Thursday, following the news that CEO Alex Karp planned to sell more than $1 billion worth of his shares and that the Pentagon was considering budget cuts over the next five years.

Super Micro Computer - Super Micro Computer declined 1.7% in premarket trading. The stock closed up 8% at $60.25 on Wednesday,extendingits latest winning streak to five days. The stock’s record-longest rally was 12 days finishing in December 2013.

Quantum Computing Stocks - Quantum computing stocks jumped again in premarket trading Thursday after Microsoft announced its first quantum computing chip. SEALSQ Corp rose 10%; D-Wave Quantum Inc. and Rigetti Computing rose 9%; Quantum Computing Inc. rose 7%; Arqit Quantum Inc. rose 6%; Quantum Corporation rose 5%; IONQ Inc. rose 4%.

Grab - Grab shares plunged 7.1% in premarket trading Thursday after it predicted full-year revenue that trailed estimates, suggesting caution around a Southeast Asian ride-hailing and food delivery market where GoTo Group remains a formidable rival.

Walmart - Shares of Walmart sank 7% in premarket trading Thursday, after the retail behemoth gave an earnings outlook for the current quarter and full year that were below expectations, citing continued pressure from its mix of products.

Carvana - Carvana stock fell 9.5% in premarket trading, even after the auto dealer reported fourth-quarter sales and earnings that topped expectations. Revenue per vehicle sold dropped 4.5% from the prior year to $22,312. Carvana said it “expects significant growth” in retail unit sales and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization in 2025, assuming “the environment remains stable,” but did not provide specific guidance.

Vimeo - Vimeo stock plunged 18.9% after the video hosting and sharing platform reported a decline in profit after its number of subscribers fell in the fourth quarter. Earnings of 1 cent a share came in below analysts’ calls for 3 cents a share. The company also guided for lower revenue in the current quarter.

Wayfair - Wayfair shares dropped 7% in premarket trading after the online retailer posted a larger quarterly loss than anticipated on revenue of $3.1 billion (+0.2% year-over-year).

Jumia - African online retailer Jumia Technologies Q4 sales $45.687M missed $47.000M estimate. The shares sank 21.1% in premarket trading.

Market News

Fed Minutes Signal Officials on Hold Until Inflation Improves

Federal Reserve officials in January expressed their readiness to hold interest rates steady amid stubborn inflation and economic-policy uncertainty.

“Participants indicated that, provided the economy remained near maximum employment, they would want to see further progress on inflation before making additional adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate,” minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s Jan. 28-29 meeting showed.

The minutes, released Wednesday in Washington, said “many participants noted that the committee could hold the policy rate at a restrictive level if the economy remained strong and inflation remained elevated.”

Officials held the Fed’s benchmark policy rate in a range of 4.25%-4.5% at that gathering.

Hegseth Set to Seek 8% Spending Shift at Pentagon

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to reduce projected US military spending by 8% over the next five years would spare southwest border enforcement, the Air Force’s newest drone program, nuclear weapons modernization and preparations for a clean audit, according to a new memo he sent to the services.

The Feb 18 memo instructs “senior Pentagon leadership,” combat commands, Defense Department agencies, the service branches and civilian agencies to propose 8% cuts to their spending estimates for each of the five fiscal years starting with 2026. “I will conduct a relook” of what’s been prepared to date, Hegseth wrote, setting a Feb. 24 deadline for responses.

Hegseth listed 17 areas that “may not be included by the services and components in their 8% decrease.” In addition to border enforcement, the exempt list includes the Virginia-class submarine, what it terms “executable surface ship programs,” homeland missile defense, the Air Force’s new Collaborative Combat Aircraft, one-way attack drones, “priority critical cybersecurity, munitions and Indo-Pacom construction projects” and private sector medical care.

Alibaba’s Sales Grow Fastest Since 2023 as Comeback Signs Mount

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. posted its fastest pace of revenue growth in more than a year, reflecting a turnaround in its commerce business and big strides into the critical field of AI.

It reported a faster-than-projected 8% rise in sales to 280.2 billion yuan ($38.6 billion) in the December quarter, after cloud services revenue expanded its most on a quarterly basis in about two years. The company’s share rose more than 6% in US pre-market trading.

The cloud division, which houses the company’s diverse AI-related projects and hosts computing power for external clients, grew revenue 13% to $4.3 billion. International commerce sales — driven by overseas marketplaces such as AliExpress and Trendyol — surged 32% in the December quarter.