U.S. stock futures were mixed on Thursday as Wall Street tried to find some traction following another tough session.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials gained 89 points, or 0.3%, to 37,790.
Futures for the S&P 500 took on four points, or 0.1%, at 4,750.80.
Futures for the NASDAQ sank 25.5 points, or 0.2%, to 16,512.50.
Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance added more than 2% before the bell after the pharmacy operator posted a fiscal first-quarter earnings beat.
Mega-cap tech stocks such as Apple are underperforming to start the year as overstretched valuations and uncertainty around when the
Federal Reserve will begin to cut rates have investors worried that markets have gotten overly optimistic.
Apple shares are down more than 4% this week. The tech giant on Thursday was downgraded by Piper Sandler two days after Barclays lowered its rating on the tech giant. Apple stock fell 0.7% in premarket trading.
On Thursday, the latest ADP report release showed that jobs grew stronger than expected in December. Companies added 164,000 jobs for the month, higher than the 130,000 Dow Jones estimate.
In Japan, markets returned Thursday to trading, following the recent earthquake, the Nikkei 225 slipping 0.5%, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index skidded 0.43 points.
Oil prices gathered 65 cents to $73.35 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained $7.90 to $2,051.10 U.S. an ounce.