Stock futures are little changed after Thursday’s sell-off on Wall Street: Live updates

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Traders work on the New York Stock Exchange floor on Feb. 20, 2025.

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U.S. stock futures were little changed on Thursday night after the major averages slid following a lackluster earnings forecast from retail giant Walmart.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 28 points, or less than 0.1%. S&P 500 futures were marginally higher, while Nasdaq-100 futures rose 0.1%.

During Thursday's regular session, the Dow shed 450.94 points, or 1.01%. The S&P 500 lost 0.43% and retreated from its recent all-time highs, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.47%. Investors pointed to a smattering of reasons behind the market's sell-off in addition to Walmart's 6.5% dip, including lingering inflationary concerns and declines in shares of Palantir.

But the market's fears on Thursday may have been slightly overblown, according to Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management. He added that Friday's economic data releases, which include the latest purchasing managers' index readings and January's existing home sales, will point equities in a direction to end the week.

"There's a chance that there's enough overall selling pressure that might drive in some margin hunters on Friday and try to claw back some of the losses that we're seeing today," he told CNBC in an interview. "I certainly think you'll get a sense tomorrow if investors feel like in the near term the moves today are overdone, especially if the PMIs and existing home sales are in line."

Hogan added: "I don't think that there's going to be a piece of economic data that could necessarily stir things up."

On a week-to-date basis, the S&P 500 is on pace for a slim gain of less than 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite is off 0.3%. The Dow is the underperformer, tracking for a 0.8% loss over the period.

Investor bearishness slides in latest Main Street poll, while muted bullishness persists

Bearishness toward the outlook for stocks over the next six months dropped to 40.5% of those polled in the latest weekly American Association of Individual Investors survey, down from about a 15-month high of 47.3% last week.

Pessimism remained above the historic average of 31.0% for a fourth straight week.

Optimism remained muted again, too, with bullishness coming in at 29.2% of respondents, up a hair from 28.4% last week, but below the historical average of 37.5% for a third straight week. The remainder were neutral about the outlook for stocks.

Contrarian investors take above-average bearishness and below-average bullishness as good signs for the market, meaning that more investors have finished their selling and more idle cash remains on the sidelines waiting to move into stocks.

— Scott Schnipper

Buy the dip on Palantir, Defiance ETFs investor says

Palantir's recent pullback may provide an opportunity for investors, according to Sylvia Jablonski, CEO of Defiance ETFs.

The defense stock slid more than 5% during Thursday's regular session and nearly 2% in extended trading Thursday, adding to its 10% loss in Wednesday's session. Those moves come on the back of Palantir CEO Alex Karp pursuing a new stock trading plan.

"I think that this is short-term news, right? I think the sale is just that he's overconcentrated in one stock that has made him incredibly wealthy and others incredibly wealthy, and they're diversifying," Jablonski said during "Three-Stock Lunch" on CNBC's "Power Lunch" on Thursday.

Also on Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plans to trim the U.S. defense budget. While this helped drive the stock lower over the past two trading days, shares have still soared more than 354% over the past 12 months.

"They're the premier [artificial intelligence] defense company," Jablonski continued. "I think that any dip for Palantir is a dip for me. I'm a buyer here."

— Sean Conlon

Stocks making the biggest moves after the bell: Celsius, Dropbox and more

These are the stocks moving the most in extended hours trading:

Celsius Holdings — The energy drink company surged 28% in extended trading. Celsius posted adjusted earnings of 14 cents per share on revenue of $332 million in the fourth quarter, topping analysts' expectations for 11 cents in earnings per share and $326 million in revenue, per LSEG.
Dropbox — Shares slipped nearly 6%. The cloud storage company said its non-GAAP gross margin came in at 83.1% in the fourth quarter, in line with analysts' expectations, per StreetAccount.
Block — The fintech stock dipped 6% after Block reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 71 cents per share on $6.03 billion in revenue.

Read the full list of stocks moving here.

— Lisa Kailai Han