Nasdaq, S&P 500 Futures Climb Ahead Of Apple Earnings: Why META, TSLA, MP, CRML, SER Are On Traders' Radar Today

• Wall Street weighed heavy earnings and lingering government shutdown concerns.
• Meta's upbeat outlook offset Microsoft's cloud slowdown, shifting focus to Apple's earnings later today.
• Commodities surged, with gold and silver hitting fresh record highs.

U.S. stock futures were higher early Thursday as investors parsed the earnings report from the first of the“Magnificent Seven” companies (Meta, Microsoft, and Tesla), with the focus shifting to Apple, which reports earnings later today. 

As of 3:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, Nasdaq futures were up 0.4%, S & P 500 futures gained 0.3%, while the Dow and Russell 2000 futures were flat.  

Meanwhile, retail sentiment toward the SPDR S & P 500 ETF (SPY), an exchange-traded fund that tracks the S & P 500 Index, and the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index, remained 'extremely bearish', amid high message volumes. 

Precious metals continued to notch fresh records, with gold surging near $5600 and silver past $120. SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) was the top trending ticker on Stocktwits at the time of writing. The iShares Silver Trust (SLV) also saw retail sentiment remaining in the 'extremely bullish' territory, with 'extremely high' levels of chatter. Among base metals, copper prices too have surged 9% this month.

Trending Stocks To Watch

Apple (AAPL): Investors will be watching for its earnings report after the market closes, with an eye on iPhone demand commentary and updates to its AI roadmap.

Western Digital (WDC), SanDisk (SNDK): Watch out for these data storage giants as they report earnings today.

Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT): Meta stock surged in after-hours, driven by a strong sales forecast and a $100-billion AI investment plan. On the other hand, Microsoft tumbled due to slowing cloud growth and soft margin guidance.

Tesla (TSLA):CEO Elon Musk confirmed plans to discontinue two EV models as it pivots to robotics. Tesla has also warned that capital expenditures could exceed $20 billion in 2026.

Critical Minerals (MP, UAMY, TMC, USAR, CRML): U.S. miner stocks were under pressure amid reports that the Trump administration was considering shelving plans for minimum price floors. MP Materials was one of the first companies to state that the news was“inaccurate.” 

Carvana (CVNA):The stock plunged yesterday amid a high-profile short seller's accusations of overstated earnings.

Alibaba (BABA): Its logistics arm reportedly plans to merge its autonomous driving unit with a Chinese 'Robovan' startup.

Nvidia (NVDA): Faces renewed scrutiny after U.S. lawmakers raised concerns about its past involvement with China's DeepSeek AI models.

Home Depot (HD): Has announced layoffs of roughly 800 workers and mandated a full return to work-from-office.

CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP), Beam Therapeutics (BEAM): Cathie Wood's ARK Investment Management has bought shares in these gene-editing stocks.

Serina Therapeutics (SER):The stock surged in after-hours trading after the FDA cleared its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for a drug to treat advanced Parkinson's disease.

Other tickers trending on Stocktwits at the time of writing included ServiceNow (NOW), SoFi Technologies (SOFI), CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD), and Novavax (NVAX), among others. Other Catalysts To WatchOn the economic front, traders will monitor Initial Jobless Claims and the U.S. Trade Balance data today.

And on the earnings radar, investors will also be watching for the quarterly reports from Mastercard (MA), Honeywell (HON), Caterpillar (CAT), and Comcast (CMCSA) before the markets open. After the close, investors will watch earnings from Visa, SAP, KLA, Deckers Brands, and Stryker, among others.

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