United States equity futures were little changed on Wednesday night (Thursday AEDT) as investors assessed a fresh batch of corporate earnings, led by results from chipmaker Nvidia and software group Salesforce.
By 10:25 am AEDT (11:25 pm GMT) Dow futures, S&P 500 futures, and Nasdaq 100 futures were trading within a range of ±0.1%.
In extended trading, Nvidia shares rose 0.3% after the company reported stronger-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results. The chipmaker posted adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.62, ahead of analyst forecasts of $1.53 per share, according to LSEG, while revenue totalled $68.13 billion, exceeding estimates of $66.21 billion.
By contrast, Snowflake shares fell 2.1% after the cloud software provider said first-quarter product revenue is expected to range between $1.262 billion and $1.267 billion, only marginally above the $1.26 billion consensus forecast compiled by FactSet.
Salesforce declined 5.1% despite delivering fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that topped expectations.
Cloud computing company Nutanix surged 15.3% after announcing a multiyear partnership with AMD to jointly develop an artificial intelligence infrastructure platform. As part of the agreement, AMD will invest $150 million in Nutanix common stock. Nutanix also reported fiscal second-quarter results that beat expectations on both revenue and profit.
Quantum computing firm IonQ climbed 7.5% after issuing stronger-than-expected sales guidance. The company projected first-quarter revenue of between $48 million and $51 million, well above the $36 million forecast.
In contrast, shares of C3.ai tumbled 23.3% after disappointing fiscal third-quarter results. The AI software company reported a loss of 40 cents per share, wider than the 29-cent loss analysts had anticipated.
The muted tone in futures trading followed a strong session on Wall Street. The S&P 500 rose 0.8% on Wednesday, marking a second consecutive daily gain.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6%, the S&P 500 rose 0.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.3%.
Technology and software names led the rebound in regular trading. Oracle gained 1.2%, and each of the so-called “Magnificent Seven” megacap technology stocks finished in positive territory. Microsoft, which has lagged broader tech peers this year, rose about 3% on the day.
Nevertheless, sentiment across software and cybersecurity stocks remains fragile. Investors continue to weigh the rapidly evolving capabilities of AI tools and the potential for disruption to established software vendors’ business models.
Looking ahead, traders will monitor further corporate updates, with results from Warner Bros. Discovery, Dell Technologies and CoreWeave due on Thursday.
On the economic front, markets are awaiting weekly U.S. jobless claims data on Thursday (Friday AEDT), followed by the January producer price index reading on Friday (Saturday AEDT), both of which could influence expectations for the Federal Reserve’s policy path.
