Wall St set for higher open after jobless claims data, Nvidia results

By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal

(Reuters) -U.S. main stock indexes were poised for a higher open on Thursday as investors focused on signs of a healthy economy, and AI-heavyweight Nvidia (NASDAQ:)’s upbeat quarterly results and forecast.

Wall Street’s biggest company, Nvidia , rose 1.3% in premarket trading after surpassing expectations for quarterly results, and projected fourth-quarter revenue above estimates.

The stock had fallen earlier as some investors were unimpressed that the forecast was its slowest in seven quarters.

“Nvidia had a spectacular quarter … but it is overshadowed by expectations. Great expectations are built in the stock and have been running at the rate at which Nvidia has been running,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.

Other chip stocks were mixed, with Broadcom (NASDAQ:) up 1.4% and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:) rising 1.1%, while Intel (NASDAQ:) inched up 0.2%.

Growth stocks Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:) rose 0.6%, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:) added 0.8% and Apple (NASDAQ:) climbed 0.2%.

At 8:49 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 195 points, or 0.45%, E-minis were up 102.5 points, or 0.49% and E-minis were up 28 points, or 0.47%.

Nvidia has led much of the U.S. market rally since mid-2023 on expectations that artificial intelligence integration could boost corporate profits. The stock has risen more than nine-fold in the past two years and the company boasts a market value of $3.5 trillion.

Wall Street indexes have retreated from their record highs, with post-election euphoria giving in to caution after President-elect Donald Trump named his cabinet picks, as markets weigh the potential inflationary impact of his policies.

On the data front, a weekly report on jobless claims stood at 213,000, compared with expectations of 220,000.

Money market bets were tied between expectations that the Fed will lower interest rates by 25 basis points at its December meeting or if it will stay put, according to the CME Group’s (NASDAQ:) FedWatch.

“The employment picture is a little bit stronger and one could think that would give the Fed another reason to either pause in December or to slow things down in 2025,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

Investors also kept an eye on escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin said the United States is more vulnerable to inflationary shocks than in the past, according to a media report.

Comments from Federal Reserve officials Austan Goolsbee and Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr are on tap.

Deere (NYSE:) shares gained 1.2% after the farm equipment maker beat Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:) dropped 0.8% after the Justice Department argued to a judge that Google must sell its Chrome browser and take other measures to end its monopoly on online search.

Crypto stocks such as MARA Holdings jumped 10%, MicroStrategy rose 14% and Coinbase (NASDAQ:) gained 2.4% as bitcoin prices soared to nearly $100,000 for the first time.

Snowflake (NYSE:) raised its annual product revenue forecast and said it has teamed up with AI firm Anthropic to build up its cloud services, sending the data analytics provider’s shares up 25%.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:) lost 3.3% after announcing a two-for-one forward stock split after the cybersecurity firm topped quarterly revenue and profit expectations.