US stocks ride surge in chips; Fed rate decision looms

Investing.com–U.S. stock futures rose Wednesday, led by a jump in chip stocks and optimism the Federal Reserve will pave the way for a September rate cut.

At 13:41 ET (17:41 GMT),  rose 194 points, or 0.50%, gained 1.4%, and climbed 2.2%. 

AMD leads chip, tech stocks higher offsetting Microsoft stumble

Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:) gained more than 4% after the chipmaker reported better-than-expected Q2 results, underpinned by record data center revenue as customers including Meta and Microsoft continued to ramp up orders.  

“The tone on data center GPU was very solid, especially around customer breadth as we think both OCI and META are now ramping strongly alongside MSFT – w/shipments starting shortly to TSLA and very strong momentum with enterprises,” UBS said in a note.

As well AMD results, sentiment on chips were boosted by surge in ASML Holding NV (AS:) ADR (NASDAQ:) after Reuters reported that the dutch chip equipment maker and other allies in Japan and South Korea could likely be excluded from U.S. ban on chipmaking equipment to China. 

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:) jumped 11% and Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:) jumped 5%.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:) stock fell more than 1% after its fourth-quarter cloud revenue growth missed expectations. 

While the firm’s overall earnings just edged past estimates for the June quarter, revenue from Azure, the company’s cloud business, grew 29%, missing estimates of 30.2% and also slowing from the 31% rise in the prior quarter. This came even as investment in AI saw capital expenditure surge by $5 billion in the quarter. 

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:) becomes the latest of the mega-cap tech giants to release quarterly results this week, after the close.

Meta, which owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp, among other products and services, is expected to report a 20% rise in quarterly revenue.

Hopes for rate cut clues as Fed decision incoming 

All eyes are on the Federal Reserve Wednesday, as the U.S. central bank concludes its latest policy-setting meeting. 

The Fed is widely expected to maintain its benchmark overnight interest rate in the current 5.25%-5.50% range, as it has done since last July, but investors are looking for policymakers to lay the groundwork for a September rate cut.

Futures are fully priced for a quarter-point easing in September, with a small chance of a reduction of 50 basis points, and have 66 basis points of easing priced in by Christmas.

Starbucks earnings meet expectations, T-Mobile, Match Group surprise on earnings stage

Starbucks (NASDAQ:) stock rose 4.3% after the coffee chain met expectations for quarterly profit, even as its global sales declined on persistent weakness in consumer spending in its top markets of the U.S. and China.

T-Mobile US (NASDAQ:) stock rose 3% after the telecoms giant after the telecoms company raised its full-year forecast for monthly bill-paying phone subscriber additions as more customers opted for its discounted unlimited plans that include streaming perks.

Pinterest (NYSE:) stock fell 13% after the social media service offered a softer-than-expected outlook for its third quarter, despite achieving a record 522 million global monthly active users, marking a 12% increase from the previous year.

Match Group (NASDAQ:) stock soared nearly 14% after the online dating service recorded a second-quarter revenue beat and announced plans to lay off about 6% of its staff to cut costs.

(Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)