Stock market today: Wall Street points higher as earnings trickle in ahead of Friday's jobs report

A person walks on Wall St. near the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (Peter Morgan / The Associated Press)

Wall Street is heading for more gains before the open on Wednesday on the last earnings reports, and ahead of Friday's U.S. jobs report.

Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.3 per cent before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.4 per cent.

General Motors shares dipped modestly after a poor performance by the Detroit automaker's Chinese joint ventures forced it to write down assets and take a more than US$5 billion restructuring charge. GM's joint ventures in China used to be a reliable source of equity income for the company, but have swung to losses in the past year. GM shares were down less than one per cent before the bell.

Salesforce jumped close to 13 per cent after the cloud-based software maker reported a more than 8 per cent jump in sales over the same quarter a year ago. The owner of Slack also pleased investors by raising some aspects of its full-year guidance.

Hormel, the maker of processed foods such as Spam and Dinty Moore stew, fell close to three per cent after it came up short on sales and profit projections and issued a lukewarm forecast.

On Thursday, the government issues its weekly layoffs report, but the more important labor market data comes Friday in the form of the November jobs report. While it has showed some softening here and there, the U.S. job market has held up better than most expected in the face of an extended stretch of elevated interest rates.

Markets will be watching for clues about the direction of those interest rates when Federal Reserve Chair participates in a moderated discussion in New York later Wednesday.

The Fed, led by Powell, has dialed back its benchmark borrowing rate in recent months after cranking it higher in an effort to stem the persistent inflation that took hold during the pandemic boom.

Global stocks were mixed Wednesday after overnight political drama in South Korea added to regional uncertainties, though the Kospi in Seoul fell less than two per cent.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was facing possible impeachment after he suddenly declared martial law on Tuesday night, prompting troops to surround the parliament. Yoon accused pro-North Korean forces of plotting to overthrow one of the world’s most vibrant democracies. The martial law declaration was revoked about six hours later.

On Wednesday, South Korea’s main opposition party called for President Yoon to resign immediately or face impeachment.

Yoon's move caused the won to plummet to a two-year low against the U.S. dollar, with losses of up to two per cent, the sharpest one-day drop since the market’s seismic reaction to Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory. The won recovered some of those losses on Wednesday. The dollar was trading at 1,416.55 won, down from Tuesday's peak at 1,443.40.

South Korea’s Kospi closed 1.4 per cent lower to 2,464.00. Shares of Samsung Electronics, the country's biggest company, fell 0.9 per cent. Meanwhile, the country’s financial regulator said they were prepared to deploy 10 trillion won (US$7.07 billion) into a stock market stabilization fund at any time, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended little changed at 19,742.46, while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.4 per cent to 3,364.65.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.1 per cent to 39,276.39. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.4 per cent to 8,462.60.

In Europe at midday, France’s CAC 40 rose 0.6 per cent as the minority government was facing a no-confidence vote Wednesday in parliament following a divisive budget debate. There appeared to be a strong chance the vote might topple Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s Cabinet.

Germany’s DAX added 0.9 per cent while Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 0.2 per cent.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude added 9 cents to US$70.03 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 16 cents to US$73.78 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 151.11 Japanese yen from 149.59 yen. The euro cost US$1.0494, down from US$1.0510.