United States stock futures edged lower during Tuesday night trading (Wednesday AEST) as investors prepared for Micron Technology's highly anticipated earnings report following a sharp sell-off across the semiconductor sector.
By 9:20 am AEST (11:20 pm GMT), futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100 were each down 0.2%.
In after-hours trading, FedEx shares fell 6.4% despite reporting fourth-quarter revenue that narrowly exceeded Wall Street expectations. The logistics giant posted revenue of $25.01 billion, ahead of of $24.04 billion expected.
Homebuilder KB Home rose 3.4% in extended trade after reporting fiscal second-quarter revenue of $1.11 billion, slightly above market expectations of $1.09 billion. However, earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.43, below the $0.45 expected.
Semiconductor company Cerebras dropped 11.4% after releasing its first earnings report since listing in May. The company reported a first-quarter loss of 22 cents per share on revenue of $193.4 million.
Cerebras also warned that its core gross margin would decline to between 36% and 38% in the second quarter, down from 46.5% in the first quarter.
Alphabet also edged higher after S&P Global announced that the Google parent would join the Dow Jones Industrial Average before trading begins next Monday.
The moves followed a difficult session for technology stocks, which dragged major benchmarks lower.
The S&P 500 fell 1.44%, while the Nasdaq Composite slumped 2.21%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 45.87 points, or 0.09%.
Intel declined 6%, and Qualcomm lost 8% as investors continued to reduce exposure to semiconductor and technology stocks.
The rotation into more defensive sectors benefited companies such as Walmart, which gained nearly 2%, while IBM advanced 5%.
Market attention is now firmly focused on Micron's quarterly earnings report, due after Wednesday's closing bell. Markets expect the memory-chip maker to report earnings of $20.83 per share on revenue of $35.75 billion.
Beyond corporate earnings, investors will also monitor fresh economic data on Wednesday, including May building permits and new home sales figures, for additional clues about the health of the U.S. economy and the outlook for interest rates.
