Feb 26 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were muted on Thursday as Nvidia's stellar quarterly results garnered a lukewarm response from investors and downbeat earnings from software company Salesforce weighed on sentiment.
Nvidia inched 0.6% higher in premarket trading after the chipmaker posted better-than-expected results for the January quarter and forecast current-quarter revenue above market estimates.
"The needle has clearly shifted when it comes to what its going to take to convince investors
that the billions being poured into AI infrastructure will pay off," said Raffi Boyadjian, lead market analyst at Trading Point.
"Markets are now moving into a phase where they want to see tangible results of AI monetization before pushing AI stocks above their recent ranges."
Most megacap and growth stocks including Apple and Microsoft were trading in the flat-to-lower band.
At 05:51 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 53 points, or 0.11%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 6.25 points, or 0.09%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 27 points, or 0.11%.
Salesforce shed 3.1% after the cloud software provider forecast fiscal 2027 revenue below expectations, signaling sluggish spending on enterprise business software.
Results from software-related companies could garner extra attention this earnings season given the S&P 500 software and services index has dropped nearly 21% so far this year as concerns of AI-related disruptions hit the sector.
While software has been one of the worst hit, financial brokerage, data analytics and legal services, real estate services and trucking are some other sectors that clocked heavy losses amid growing AI disruption fears earlier this year.
February has been a choppy month for U.S. equities, with the main indexes swinging sharply between gains and losses as sentiment towards AI and technology stocks waver, with investors questioning if massive planned AI spending is actually paying off.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at two-week highs on Wednesday, fueled by a rally in heavyweight technology stocks.
Media company Warner Bros Discovery, Skippy peanut butter maker Hormel Foods and utility Vistra are some of the prominent companies reporting earnings before the bell on Thursday.
A weekly jobless claims reading is due later in the day and January producer prices data is scheduled for release on Friday.
Among other stocks, Trade Desk dropped 16.9% after the advertising technology firm forecast first-quarter revenue below estimates amid mounting pressure from larger rivals.
C3.ai slipped 22.7% after the software provider forecast current-quarter sales below estimates and said it was cutting 26% of its global workforce.
Shares of energy companies including Exxon Mobil and Chevron were down around 0.4% each, tracking lower crude oil prices as investors assessed whether U.S.-Iran talks could avert a military conflict that risks supply disruptions.
(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
