In the latest premarket activity, the broad market exchange-traded fund SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust was down by 0.3%. Similarly, the actively traded Invesco QQQ Trust recorded a loss of 0.4%. These declines come as investors await the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting, scheduled for later today. Futures for U.S.
stocks were also trending lower, with S&P 500 Index futures declining 0.4%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipping by 0.2%, and Nasdaq futures losing 0.5% ahead of the regular trading session. The economic calendar indicates that the ADP employment report for December will be unveiled at 8:15 am ET, followed shortly by the weekly jobless claims report at 8:30 am ET. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller is set to speak at 8:30 am ET, a piece of news that could further influence market conditions. Later in the morning, investors can expect the release of the November wholesale inventories report at 10 am ET, followed by the weekly EIA petroleum status report at 10:30 am ET. The minutes from the last Federal Reserve policy meeting, held on December 17th to 18th, will be disclosed at 2 pm ET, offering insights into the Fed's thought process and future policy directions. In the cryptocurrency sector, bitcoin experienced a decline of 1.4%, while the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF reflected a decrease of 1.2%. Turning to the industrial sector, the Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund was down 0.5%.
The Vanguard Industrials Index Fund recorded a loss of 0.4%, with the iShares US Industrials ETF remaining flat. Notably, XTI Aerospace saw its stock plummet by over 48% before trading commenced after announcing a pricing of approximately 363.6 million shares at $0.055 each, aiming for gross proceeds of about $20 million. In the consumer sector, the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund demonstrated no movement, while the Vanguard Consumer Staples Fund rose by 1.8%.
The iShares US Consumer Staples ETF remained inactive, and the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund faced a decline of 0.6%. The VanEck Retail ETF and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF were also inactive. Helen of Troy saw a decrease of over 5% in its shares during pre-bell activity after revealing lower adjusted earnings and revenue for fiscal Q3. In the energy realm, the iShares US Energy ETF saw no trading activity, while the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund experienced a slight decline of 0.1%.
Conversely, Shell's stock was down more than 3% before the opening bell following an announcement predicting lackluster Q4 oil and gas trading results, primarily due to decreased liquefied natural gas production and trading performance. On the financial side, the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund dropped 0.2%.
The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares faced a decrease of 0.8%, whereas its bearish counterpart, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares, rose by 0.8%. For cryptocurrency enthusiasts, Hut 8 saw its shares dip by 3.1% after announcing that it mined 89 bitcoins in December, down 5% from November's total of 94 BTC. In health care, the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund slightly retreated by 0.01%, with the Vanguard Health Care Index Fund down 0.1%, while the iShares US Healthcare ETF appreciated by 1.4%.
However, the iShares Biotechnology ETF fell by 0.4%. Boston Scientific managed to gain more than 2% during premarket trading after announcing its agreement to acquire Bolt Medical's remaining shares for a total of $443 million, in addition to potential milestone payments. In technology, the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund decreased by 0.3%, and the iShares US Technology ETF fell by 0.4%.
The iShares Expanded Tech Sector ETF decreased by 0.6%. Tracking the semiconductor ETFs, the SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF dropped by 0.9%, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF experienced a similar decline. Ansys shares saw a rise of more than 1% during premarket activity when the UK's Competition and Markets Authority expressed potential acceptance of Ansys and Synopsys's proposed $35 billion acquisition. Lastly, looking at commodities, the front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil saw a gain of 0.8%, trading at $74.82 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Natural gas climbed by 4.6% to $3.61 per million British Thermal Units. Both the United States Oil Fund and the United States Natural Gas Fund recorded slight increases. Gold futures for February showed a marginal decrease of 0.03% to $2,664.50 an ounce, while silver futures moved up slightly by 0.1% to $30.71 an ounce.
SPDR Gold Shares saw a slight dip of 0.03%, while the iShares Silver Trust increased by 0.2%..