Stock futures were looking pretty good Wednesday morning, shaking off Tuesday's mixed finish with gains across the board. If you're keeping score at home, futures on the major benchmarks all pushed into positive territory as investors tried to make sense of what's happening in the labor market.

About that jobs report: November's employment data finally landed on Tuesday after delays and distortions left it looking like something assembled during a power outage. Rather than providing the clarity everyone wanted, it mostly succeeded in giving Wall Street economists more material to argue about. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6%, and now there's a genuine debate happening about whether this represents the kind of controlled economic cooling that central bankers dream about, or the early stages of what some are calling a "hiring recession." Fun times.

Meanwhile, in the bond market, the 10-year Treasury was yielding 4.16% while the two-year sat at 3.50%. The CME Group's FedWatch tool, which tracks market expectations for Federal Reserve policy moves, shows traders pricing in an 80.1% probability that the Fed will keep interest rates right where they are at the next meeting. Translation: nobody expects fireworks from the central bank anytime soon.

Here's how futures were looking in early trading:

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ), which track the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 respectively, were both trading higher in premarket action. SPY was up 0.21% at $680.28, while QQQ advanced 0.23% to $613.15.

Companies Making Moves

Lennar Stumbles on Mixed Results

Lennar Corp. (LEN) was down 3.78% after the homebuilder reported its fourth-quarter numbers Tuesday evening. The results were a mixed bag: revenue came in at $9.37 billion, which actually beat analyst estimates of $9.02 billion. But apparently that wasn't enough to get investors excited, because the stock was getting hammered in premarket trading.

The technical picture for LEN isn't particularly encouraging either. The stock has maintained a weaker price trend across short, medium, and long timeframes, with a poor quality ranking according to market data.

Micron Technology Rallies Ahead of Earnings

Micron Technology Inc. (MU) shares jumped 3.36% in premarket trading as investors positioned themselves ahead of the memory chip maker's earnings report, scheduled for after the closing bell Wednesday. Analysts are expecting earnings of $3.93 per share on revenue of $12.81 billion, so the bar is set pretty clearly.

Unlike Lennar, Micron's technical setup looks considerably better. The stock maintains a stronger price trend over short, medium, and long terms, with a moderate value ranking. Sometimes momentum is your friend.

Children's Place Takes a Beating

Children's Place Inc. (PLCE) absolutely collapsed, dropping 32.11% after posting third-quarter results that can only be described as ugly. The children's apparel retailer reported a loss of 18 cents per share, which would be bad enough on its own. But analysts had been expecting a profit of 70 cents per share. That's not missing estimates; that's missing estimates while going in the opposite direction.

The stock's performance metrics tell a similarly grim story. PLCE maintains a weaker price trend across all timeframes with a poor growth ranking. When the fundamentals and technicals both look terrible, that's what we call confirmation.

Paranovus Announces Reverse Stock Split

Paranovus Entertainment Technology Ltd. (PAVS) declined 3.91% after announcing it will execute a 1-for-100 reverse share split of its Class A ordinary shares, effective at Thursday's market open. Reverse splits are generally not the kind of news that gets investors excited, since they're often a sign that a company is trying to boost its share price to meet listing requirements.

PAVS maintains a weaker price trend over short, medium, and long terms, with a poor growth ranking to boot.

Aditxt Surges on Proxy Filing

Aditxt Inc. (ADTX) surged 38.03% after filing a definitive proxy statement for a special stockholder virtual meeting scheduled for January 30, 2026. The stock has been volatile, and while it maintains a weaker price trend across various timeframes according to market data, investors were apparently excited about whatever's being proposed at that meeting.

What Happened Tuesday

Tuesday's session was a real mixed bag across sectors. The Information Technology, Consumer Discretionary, and Communication Services sectors posted gains, while pretty much everything else declined. Energy, Health Care, Real Estate, Financials, Industrials, Consumer Staples, Utilities, and Materials all finished in the red.

Here's how the major indices closed:

What the Experts Are Saying

Jeremy Siegel is feeling optimistic about where markets are headed, driven by what he sees as a dovish Federal Reserve and a stock market rally that's starting to broaden beyond the usual suspects.

He's interpreting the Fed's recent signals as marking the "effective end of quantitative tightening," which creates a liquidity environment that has "historically been supportive for risk assets." In his view, the Fed funds rate will eventually settle somewhere in the "low 3s," which would represent a meaningful decline from current levels.

On the economic front, Siegel characterizes what we're seeing as a "no-hire, no-fire" economy. Companies aren't aggressively laying people off, but they're also not exactly rushing to bring on new workers either. His "base case" is that the economy "avoids recession," which would obviously be nice.

What's particularly interesting is his view on equities. Siegel expects a "market rotation" where the leadership baton passes from the tech giants that have dominated for so long. He points out that the performance bar for AI mega-caps is now "extraordinarily high," and predicts that "non-Magnificent-7 and non-tech sectors" will start benefiting from improving margins and lower interest rates.

The bottom line? He views the normalizing yield curve as a "healthy backdrop for equities." That's Wall Street speak for "things should be pretty good."

Economic Calendar Watch

Wednesday brings a parade of Federal Reserve officials who will presumably share their thoughts on the economy and monetary policy. Fed governor Chris Waller speaks at 8:15 a.m., New York Fed President John Williams takes the stage at 9:05 a.m., and Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic rounds things out at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time. Investors will be listening for any hints about the Fed's thinking on rates and the economy.

Commodities, Crypto, and Global Markets

Crude oil futures were trading 2.52% higher in early New York trading, hovering around $56.52 per barrel. Energy markets have been volatile lately, so this bounce is worth watching.

Gold spot prices rose 0.40% to about $4,319.87 per ounce. For context, the precious metal's most recent record high was $4,381.60 per ounce, so we're not far off those levels. The U.S. Dollar Index was 0.41% higher at 98.5470.

Over in crypto land, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading 0.13% higher at $86,549.32 per coin. Not exactly fireworks, but at least it's in the green.

Asian markets closed with mixed results Wednesday. India's NIFTY 50 and Australia's ASX 200 indices fell, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng, China's CSI 300, South Korea's Kospi, and Japan's Nikkei 225 indices all rose. European markets were trading higher in early action, suggesting a generally positive mood across the Atlantic.