Nasdaq leads Wall St futures higher on AI optimism after Micron's forecast
(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Thursday, as a wave of optimism around artificial intelligence gripped Wall Street following Micron's upbeat forecast, while investors also awaited economic data and remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU ) jumped 15.8% in premarket trading after the memory chip maker forecast higher than expected first-quarter revenue, underscoring that demand for memory chips used in AI computing was robust.
Other chip stocks also gained, with Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA ) rising 1.2%, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD ) advancing 2.2% and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO ) adding 1.7%.
Meta (NASDAQ:META ) led gains among other growth names, with a 1.7% rise, a day after unveiling an entry-level version of its Quest line of mixed-reality headsets. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL ) added 1%, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA ) climbed 1.3% and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT ) was up 0.7%.
At 05:21 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 197 points, or 0.47%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 43.5 points, or 0.76% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 268.25 points, or 1.33%.
Futures tracking the Russell 2000 small caps index added 0.83%.
The benchmark S&P 500 and blue-chip Dow have hit multiple record highs since the start of this year and the tech-laden Nasdaq is about 3% away from its own milestone as investors lap up shares of companies that could see a boost to earnings from AI-integration.
Expectations of lower interest rates have further strengthened the rally. Focus will now be on jobless claims data for the week ended Sept. 21 and a final second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) estimate. The reports are due at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Late on Wednesday, Fed Governor Adriana Kugler said she "strongly supported" the central bank's decision to kick off monetary policy easing with a rare half a percentage point cut last week, as part of an emerging focus on the job market.
The spotlight will now be on Powell's remarks at a New York conference expected before the market opens as investors look for clues on the outlook for the economy and the pace of further easing.
Odds of a 50 basis-point reduction in interest rates in November are at 60.8%, compared with 38.8% a week ago, as per the CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME ) FedWatch Tool.
Traders also await remarks from a host of Fed officials, including John Williams, Michael Barr, Michelle Bowman and Neel Kashkari.
Among others, copper miners such as Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX ) rose 3.5%, while lithium miners such as Albemarle (NYSE:ALB ) climbed 3.8% and Arcadium added 2.3% after a report said China plans to issue special sovereign bonds worth about 2 trillion yuan as part of a fresh fiscal stimulus.
The optimism also spread to U.S.-listed Chinese firms such as Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI ) that advanced 6.7%, PDD Holdings rose 7% and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA ) added 5.3%.
Source: Investing.com