U.S. equity index futures are indicating a largely flat start to trading on Wednesday, suggesting stocks could struggle to find clear direction after advancing over the past two sessions.

After a strong start to the first full trading week of the new year, some investors may be inclined to step back and reassess positions. That said, a similar setup played out on Tuesday, when futures also pointed to a subdued open before both the Dow and the S&P 500 went on to finish at fresh record closing highs.

Futures trading showed little reaction after payrolls processor ADP released its latest employment report, which indicated that U.S. private-sector job growth in December came in slightly below expectations.

ADP reported that private employment increased by 41,000 jobs last month, following a revised decline of 29,000 jobs in November. Economists had been looking for an increase of around 47,000 jobs, compared with the previously reported drop of 32,000 in the prior month.

Commenting on the figures, ADP chief economist Dr. Nela Richardson said: “Small establishments recovered from November job losses with positive end-of-year hiring, even as large employers pulled back.”

Momentum carried through into Tuesday’s session, extending the early-year rally. With the latest gains, both the Dow and the S&P 500 closed at new all-time highs.

The main indexes finished just below their intraday peaks. The Dow surged 484.90 points, or 1.0%, to 49,462.08. The Nasdaq advanced 151.35 points, or 0.7%, to 23,547.17, while the S&P 500 added 42.77 points, or 0.6%, to 6,944.82.

A key driver of the Dow’s strength was a sharp rise in shares of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), which jumped 3.4%. The e-commerce and technology giant closed at a record high after announcing the rollout of Alexa.com to Alexa+ Early Access customers, a move widely seen as an effort to compete more directly with ChatGPT and Gemini.

Additional support for the blue-chip index came from strong gains in Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN), Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) and IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM).

The broader market’s continued advance has occurred despite the absence of major immediate catalysts, with investors increasingly focused on several important U.S. economic releases scheduled for the days ahead.

The key event of the week is expected to be Friday’s closely watched monthly employment report from the Labor Department. The data could influence expectations for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting later this month.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave rates unchanged at its January 27–28 meeting, markets continue to anticipate at least one additional quarter-point rate cut in the months ahead.

At the sector level, computer hardware stocks delivered some of the strongest performances, with the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index jumping 4.3%.

Rising gold prices also lifted gold-related shares, reflected in a 4.1% surge in the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. Biotechnology stocks showed notable strength as well, pushing the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index up 3.0%.

Semiconductor, retail and healthcare stocks also posted solid gains, while energy shares lagged the broader market amid a pullback in crude oil prices.

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