Wall Street pointed toward gains before the opening bell Thursday, a day after declines for AI stocks dragged the U.S. market to its worst day in nearly a month.
Futures for the S&P 500 gained 0.4%, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 0.2%. Nasdaq futures shot 0.8% higher.
Some of the companies hit hardest on Wednesday were poised to regain some of those losses Thursday. Broadcom, Oracle and CoreWeave were all up a little more
than 1% early Wednesday, possibly boosted by a strong earnings report from the chipmaker Micron.
Micron jumped 12.8% early Thursday after it easily beat Wall Street's first-quarter profit and revenue targets. The Idaho company said that demand for AI accelerated last quarter, pushing its profit and revenue to record highs.
The artificial-intelligence sector is being pressured by questions over whether Big Tech companies’ share prices have shot too high. Micron's record quarter may temporarily ease some of the anxiety over AI and whether all the money being poured into it will turn into productivity and profit.
Outside the tech sector, Lululemon jumped 7.4% on reports that activist investor Elliott Management has taken a more than $1 billion stake in the company and is pushing for a new CEO.
Traders were waiting for an update later in the day on U.S. inflation, and on a decision Friday by Japan’s central bank on interest rates. The Bank of Japan is expected to raise its key rate by 0.25 percentage point to tamp down price pressures, despite a contraction in the July-September quarter.
The Bank of England on Thursday cut its key interest rate for the first time in four months amid signs that the stubbornly high inflation that has plagued British consumers and businesses is beginning to ease. Policymakers at Britain’s central bank voted to reduce the base rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.75%.
At midday in Europe, Germany's DAX edged 0.2% higher to 24,007.33, while the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.4% to 8,114.30. Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.3% to 9,800.00.
In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 1% to 49,001.50, with technology shares leading the decline.
Technology and telecoms giant SoftBank sank 4%. Computer chipmaker Tokyo Electron lost 3.2% while chip testing equipment maker Advantest dropped 3.3%.
Honda Motor Corp. fell 2.2% after reports said it was suspending production at some plants in Japan and China due to shortages of computer chips.
South Korea’s Kospi sank 1.5% to 3,994.51, also pulled lower by selling of shares in electronics companies and automakers. LG Electronics declined 3.1%, while Samsung Electronics lost 0.3%.
Chinese markets were mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng bounced back from early losses to gain 0.1%, closing at 25,498.13. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.2% higher, to 3,876.37.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was nearly unchanged at 8,588.20.
In energy markets early Thursday, U.S. crude was up 11 cents at $55.92 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 7 cents to $59.75 per barrel. It had climbed 1.3% on Wednesday.
Oil prices have been falling for most of this year on expectations that companies are pumping more than enough crude to meet the world’s demand.
