Stock market today: US futures wobble as Wall Street looks to end volatile week on high note

US stock futures wavered before the bell, as Wall Street looked to end a volatile week on a high note. Futures tied to the S&P 500 ( ES=F ) were down 0.2%, while those on the tech-heavy Nasdaq ( NQ=F) slumped 0.3%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures ( YM=F ) edged lower by 0.1%.

Markets are nearing the end of the most volatile week of the 2024 campaign. Monday saw the worst rout of the year , and Wall Street's "fear gauge" — the CBOE Volatility Index ( ^VIX ) — soared to its highest levels since the throes of the pandemic.

By Thursday, a reassuring look at the labor market — in the form of the normally routine report on weekly jobless claims — had given investors reason to buy back in . The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both rallied over 2%, with the S&P posting its best day since late 2022 — a remarkable feat, considering the breadth of 2024's rally overall.

In the end, with a modest rally on Friday, the major indices could end the week near where they started it. After Thursday's session, the benchmark S&P 500 was down about 0.5% from last Friday's close. All the more reason, as many strategists told Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman in the Morning Brief newsletter, to stay calm amid the chaos.

Friday is a quiet day, with no notable economic releases or earnings on the docket. In individual movers, Nvidia ( NVDA ) will again be in focus after wild swings of its own this week. Its stock rose slightly in pre-market trading. Meanwhile, Paramount ( PARA ) stock jumped over 5% after it announced its first-ever streaming profit and said it planned layoffs over the coming year.