Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures rose on Wednesday as Nvidia and other semiconductor stocks continued to regain momentum ahead of a key inflation gauge this week, and FedEx shares surged on a strong full-year profit outlook.
AI chip company Nvidia recovered from recent losses to rise 2.2% in early trading, while semiconductor stocks Broadcom Inc, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Arm Holdings Co. each rose 1%.
Micron Technology also rose 3% ahead of its quarterly results, which are due to be released after the close of trading.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq, the S&P 500 Information Technology Index and the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index all recorded gains of more than 1% on Tuesday.
The rise in AI stocks is expected to have a major impact on the final reconstitution of the Russell indexes on Friday.
Large-cap stocks such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. were up slightly in premarket trading after surging more than 2% on Tuesday. Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. also rose on Wednesday.
As of 5:31 a.m. ET, the Dow e-mini was down 6 points, or 0.02%, while the S&P 500 e-mini was up 9.75 points, or 0.18%, and the Nasdaq 100 e-mini was up 64.5 points, or 0.32%.
Investors are also preparing for Friday's release of the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, to see whether the data shows price pressures easing as expected, with the central bank expected to cut interest rates just once in December.
Market participants see a nearly 60% chance of a 25 basis point cut in September, with roughly two rate cuts by the end of the year, according to LSEG FedWatch data.
Delivery giant FedEx saw its shares rise 13.5% after the company said it expects its profits for fiscal 2025 to beat expectations.
Shares in U.S. electric vehicle maker Rivian surged 37% on Wednesday after German carmaker Volkswagen bought the car as part of a new joint venture in which the two companies have equal control.
Albemarle, the world's largest lithium producer, saw its shares rise 2.5% as it plans to hold more tenders for the metal used in EV batteries.
Stocks rose in Europe and Asia on Wednesday as Nvidia's rebound offset weakness on Wall Street.
Germany's DAX index rose 0.8% to 18,482.00 and Paris' CAC 40 index rose 0.1% to 7,672.76. In London, the FTSE 100 index rose 0.5% to 8,291.45.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei rose 1.3% to 39,667.07, buoyed by strong demand for technology stocks on the back of enthusiasm for Nvidia and artificial intelligence.
Tokyo Electron rose 3.6%, Advantest surged 7%, and Shin-Etsu Chemical rose 1.5%.
Meanwhile, the dollar rose slightly against the Japanese yen, and officials in Tokyo warned of possible market intervention.
The dollar rose to 159.89 yen from 159.70 yen. The euro fell to 1.0695 dollars from 1.0717 dollars.
“Fundamentally the yen remains weak and is lacking a catalyst for a reversal,” Luca Santos, currency analyst at ACY Securities, said in a commentary.
“The threat of direct intervention looms if the U.S. dollar/yen exchange rate crosses the 160 yen threshold,” he said, noting that Japanese authorities have emphasized that it is not just the level of the yen but the pace of its decline that could trigger intervention.
Seoul's KOSPI rose 0.6% to 2,792.05.
Chinese stocks rebounded after a weak start, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rising 0.1% to 18,089.93 and the Shanghai Composite index rising 0.8% to 2,972.53.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.7% to 7,783.00.
Taiwanese stocks rose 0.5 percent and Indian stocks added 0.7 percent. Bangkok's SET rose 0.1 percent.
In other trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 57 cents to $81.40 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange early Wednesday.
Brent crude, the international standard, rose 57 cents to $84.79 a barrel.
Reuters and Associated Press
