By Purvi Agarwal and Niket Nishant
Aug 28 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were poised for a muted open, as an AI-fueled rally fizzled out ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh's much-anticipated Jackson Hole appearance on Friday.
Warsh's speech, his first at the Fed's annual gathering in Wyoming, will round out a busy week packed with results from corporate heavyweights such as Nvidia and Salesforce, alongside a batch of fresh economic data.
While the central bank chief has been tight-lipped
about the interest rate outlook, the U.S. Treasury's move to calm bond markets last week has put his speech in sharper focus.
Investors could scrutinize his comments for any hints on how the central bank plans to approach monetary policy after mixed inflation data this month.
"There's been a lot of apprehension among investors about staying invested, because some of the stock moves have been uncomfortably high. The inflation data has also become pretty difficult to read because of the energy prices," said Yung-Shin Kung, CIO of Mast Investments.
"The bigger question for everybody is what (Treasury Secretary) Scott Bessent is looking at, and what the implications of that are for monetary policy."
Money market participants are pricing in about a 36% chance of a rate hike in September, according to CME's FedWatch tool.
In the market, chip stocks pulled back after a rally in the previous session, sparked by Nvidia's blockbuster forecast that indicated the AI-driven rally had room to run.
"For the chip companies, investors are hungry for a new catalyst," said Mike Reynolds, vice president of investment strategy at Glenmede.
"Markets have gotten their arms around how data center deployment will lead to potentially higher revenues. But the question is, what's next? And it hasn't been obvious in some cases."
Nvidia slipped 0.2% in premarket trading, and Micron Technology and Intel were down over 1.5% each.
Marvell Technology lost 7.7% on doubts over the timing of revenue from its AI chip agreement with Alphabet's Google despite an increase to its 2027 revenue forecast.
At 8:30 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 98 points, or 0.18%, and S&P 500 E-minis were up 7.75 points, or 0.10%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 35.5 points, or 0.12%.
Meanwhile, PayPal fell 14.4% after Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that a consortium of buyout firm Advent and payment processor Stripe had decided to abandon their pursuit of the payments firm.
Gap's shares advanced 17.4% as the company named industry veteran Michael Francis as Old Navy's new CEO and it raised its annual profit forecast.
Ulta Beauty slipped 1.1% after the cosmetics retailer's comparable sales growth dropped in the second quarter.
Markets will also parse the final reading of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment for August, and Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee's speech.
Wall Street's main indexes are still on track for weekly gains. If levels hold through close, the indexes could claw back ground lost last week after surging bond yields hammered stocks.
(Reporting by Purvi Agarwal and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
