Dow and S&P 500 futures each dropped 0.3% Thursday morning, with Nasdaq-100 futures off 0.4%, as traders digested a pair of heavyweight tech earnings reports and watched Brent crude push toward $100 a barrel.

Alphabet delivered a solid quarter, but the company's decision to raise its capital expenditure outlook unsettled investors who are already asking hard questions about what AI spending actually returns. Tesla's Elon Musk made things worse by calling 2026 a "massive capex year," citing Optimus robots, robotaxis and data centers as the main cost drivers. Both stocks fell in pre-market trading. As core members of the Magnificent Seven, Alphabet and Tesla carry enough index weight to drag futures meaningfully lower on their own, and Thursday was a clear example of that dynamic playing out.

Oil added another layer of pressure. Brent crude climbed to $97 per barrel after Iran-backed Houthi forces reported attacks on tankers in the Red Sea, broadening the conflict in the region. West Texas Intermediate rose to $89. The jump in crude sent Treasury yields to their highest point since May: the 10-year and 30-year both ticked up, reviving inflation concerns that had started to fade and pushing back market expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts later in the year.

One number cut through the gloom

Initial jobless claims for the week ending July 18 came in at 187,000. That is 22,000 fewer than the prior week and well below the 215,000 economists had penciled in. It is also the lowest reading since May 1969, with the all-time record sitting at 162,000 from November 1968. About 17,000 of the weekly decline came from New York alone. Stephen Stanley, chief US economist at Santander, attributed the drop largely to seasonal patterns and the unwinding of elevated June figures, adding that layoffs this year have run slightly below recent historical norms.

Investors were also watching earnings Thursday from Intel, T-Mobile US and Lockheed Martin, with results from those companies set to add another variable to an already busy session.

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