(10/3) - Thursday's Stock Market News & Movers Good Morning StockBoarders! Happy Thursday! Stock futures edge lower as traders await Friday’s jobs report: Live updates Stock futures edged lower Thursday as investors look ahead to September’s payrolls report due later this week, while tensions in the Middle East persist. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 118 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures fell 0.2%, while Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.3%. October trading is off to a rough start as escalating tensions in the Middle East dampen investors’ enthusiasm. Stocks tumbled on Tuesday after Iran launched a missile attack on Israel. Investors are preparing for further uncertainty as Israel starts a ground operation into Lebanon. The growing fears have also driven oil prices higher. U.S. crude futures rose more than 1.5%, bringing its week-to-date advance to 4.6%. Weekly jobless claims came in slightly higher than economists polled by Dow Jones forecasted, according to data released Thursday. That offers hints into the health of the labor market as traders gear up for September’s payrolls report due on Friday morning. “While the stock market is grappling with a variety of worries — including escalating tensions in the Middle East, a port strike and election uncertainty — liquidity is key and there is plenty of it now that the Fed has started to cut interest rates … that means that markets can continue to grind higher,” said Mary Ann Bartels, chief investment strategist at Sanctuary Wealth. “Embrace October’s volatility, as there is still plenty of fuel left in this bull market,” she added. In corporate news, denim maker Levi Strauss plunged about 10% after delivering mixed results for the fiscal third quarter. The company also announced that it’s considering a sale of its Dockers business, which is dragging down the overall business. STOCK FUTURES NOW: YESTERDAY'S MARKET HEAT MAP YESTERDAY'S S&P SECTORS: TODAY'S ECONOMIC CALENDAR: THIS WEEK'S ECONOMIC CALENDAR: MOST ACTIVE TRENDING DISCUSSIONS (STOCK SYMBOLS ARE CLICKABLE!): HKD AMTD Digital Inc - ADR XRP.X Ripple HIMS Hims & Hers Health Inc NVAX Novavax Inc ALDX Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc HROW Harrow Health Inc STZ Constellation Brands Inc LEVI Levi Strauss & Co. - Ordinary Shares Cls A CAT Caterpillar Inc. BOIL ProShares Trust - ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas THIS WEEK'S IPO'S: THIS WEEK'S EARNINGS CALENDAR: ($CCL $NKE $PAYX $LEVI $LW $MKC $AYI $STZ $UNFI $CAT $RGP $RPM $ANGO $APOG) THIS MORNING'S PRE-MARKET EARNINGS RELEASES: BEFORE TODAY'S MARKET OPEN: THIS AFTERNOON'S AFTER-HOURS EARNINGS RELEASES: AFTER TODAY'S MARKET CLOSE: (NONE.) YESTERDAY'S ANALYST UPGRADES/DOWNGRADES: YESTERDAY'S INSIDER TRADING FILINGS: TODAY'S DIVIDEND CALENDAR: THIS MORNING'S PRE-MARKET STOCK NEWS MOVERS: source: cnbc.com Wolfspeed – The semiconductor stock fell nearly 5% following a downgrade to underperform from neutral at Mizuho. The firm sees pricing for silicon carbide – a semiconductor material used in electric vehicles – being down about 10% to 20% year-over-year in 2025. Mizuho also cited lower EV production expectations both in the second half of this year and next year as another potential headwind for the company. Nvidia – Shares of the AI chip giant rose more than 1% after CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Wednesday that it’s seeing “insane” demand for its next-generation AI graphics processor known as Blackwell. The CEO also said that Blackwell, which is expected to ship in the fourth quarter, is on schedule. Hims & Hers Health — The telehealth company declined around 9% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the shortage of GLP-1 treatments from Eli Lilly has been resolved. Hims & Her Health had previously developed compound versions of the weight-loss drugs to take advantage of the shortages. EVgo — Shares advanced more than 9% after JPMorgan upgraded the electric vehicle charging company to overweight. Analyst Bill Peterson pointed to EVgo’s utilization rate compared to peers as well as its owner-operator model as catalysts. Levi Strauss — Shares plunged 12% after the denim maker trimmed its full-year revenue guidance and delivered fiscal third-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ expectations. The company is also considering a sale of its underperforming Dockers business. Constellation Brands — The beverage company rose slightly on the back of better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter earnings. Constellation Brands earned $4.32 per share, beating a StreetAccount estimate of $4.08 per share. Revenue of $2.92 billion, however, marginally missed expectations. The company also reiterated its full-year earnings per share guidance. Stellantis — The automaker was down more than 3% in the premarket after a Barclays downgrade to equal weight from overweight. “We got wrong-footed on STLA, being too slow to acknowledge its US inventory issue and eroding EU/US market shares,” analyst Henning Cosman wrote. Have a happy trading day to everyone in here on this Thursday!