By Shashwat Chauhan and Utkarsh Hathi
Oct 26 (Reuters) - US stocks were set to open higher on Monday as Anthropic's IPO filing drew investor attention ahead of a week dominated by corporate earnings and the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision.
Anthropic laid out its ambitions to build AI systems capable of transforming the global economy while confronting the costs and challenges of developing the technology.
The company is pressing ahead with its IPO plans even as a once-busy fall listing calendar
has thinned out, with market volatility prompting companies to delay offerings.
Most megacap and growth stocks moved higher in premarket trading, with Tesla gaining 2.5% after Barclays upgraded its rating on the stock to "overweight" from "equal-weight".
Semiconductor and chip-related companies also climbed after a turbulent few weeks. Nvidia and rivals AMD and Intel all rose more than 1% each.
At 09:05 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 208 points, or 0.4%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 25.75 points, or 0.34%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 175.5 points, or 0.6%.
About a third of S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report earnings this week, including hyperscalers Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon.com, whose results would be closely watched for signs that hefty AI investments are paying off.
The focus follows a muted reception to earnings from AI-linked megacaps last week. Meta disappointed investors after raising its annual AI spending forecast again and said it would sell new stock to help pay for it, while Tesla also came under pressure after its results.
"It does feel like in this earning season that companies are trapped now, because if you spend too much that's a concern for investors, but then if you signal you're not spending enough, then investors start to worry as well," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG Group.
Meta said on Monday it plans to raise up to $95 billion in equity to fund its AI-related expansion of data centers, cloud computing power and other infrastructure. Its shares were last down 0.7%.
The AI trade has come under pressure this month amid concerns that debt-funded spending may become harder to justify in the face of rising borrowing costs. Neocloud firms CoreWeave and Nebius have each lost more than 30% of their market value in October.
CoreWeave fell 3.9% and Nebius dipped 1.7% after Elon Musk said in an X post markets have "almost entirely shut off access to money" for companies without substantial revenue independent of AI data centers, and predicted neocloud consolidation.
Musk also said SpaceX would not buy any neocloud firms, calling that "pointless". IREN and Applied Digital also dropped slightly.
Crude oil prices eased after hitting a near six-month high last week. On Sunday, Qatari mediators traveled to Tehran as part of an effort to de-escalate regional tensions in coordination with the United States.
EYES ON THE FED AND MIDTERMS
The Fed's rate decision is due on Wednesday, with a pause widely expected after its September hike. Traders still see a December hike as firmly possible, and at least two 25-basis-point increases by mid-2027, according to LSEG data.
Both the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures index for September, and third-quarter GDP, expected to show 3.2% growth, are due on Thursday.
Investors are also monitoring the November 3 midterm elections, which will decide control of the US Congress.
Among other movers, US-listed shares of Brazilian companies tumbled after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won a historic fourth term on Sunday, in a shock result that defied polls. The iShares Brazil ETF slumped over 26%.
(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Utkarsh Hathi in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
