The index futures are a derivative of the actual indexes. Futures look into the future to "lock in" a future price or try to predict where something will be in the future; hence the name. Since there are futures on the indexes (S&P 500, Dow 30, NASDAQ 100, Russell 2000) that trade virtually 24 hours a day, The latest commodity trading prices for Index Futures: Dow, S&P, Nasdaq and more on the U.S. commodities & futures market. To get a jump on where the stock market may be headed, track the stock futures and premarket prices, particularly the index futures. Outside of normal market hours, the Dow futures, S&P futures