Stock Futures Rise as Investors Await Inflation Data and AI Earnings
Stock futures were slightly higher Sunday evening as traders watched whether technology shares could continue to recover while awaiting key inflation data and earnings from major AI companies this week, CNBC reported.
S&P 500 futures gained 0.1%, while Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.3%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 101 points, or 0.2%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.03%, and mainland China’s CSI 300 index traded 0.3% higher. Investors in Asia assessed October inflation data from China showing the producer price index hitting its highest in over four years at 5.7%, alongside consumer inflation coming in slower than expected at 0.7%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.51%.
New buying propelled semiconductor equities upward, allowing the market to stage a partial recovery on Friday following Thursday’s severe artificial intelligence-led decline. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite bounced 1.09% to 24,579.42 and the S&P 500 rose 0.31% to 7,376.86, while the Dow lost 237.33 points to settle at 51,285.73.
Broader investor sentiment remained cautious following stronger-than-expected jobs data. Unease persisted in the wake of the Democrats’ strong midterm results, driven by anxieties that stricter rules regarding data center construction, energy consumption, and development expenses might hinder the growth of AI infrastructure.
Schwab Center for Financial Research chief investment strategist Liz Ann Sonders pointed out that heavy trader de-risking has left the Nasdaq and Nasdaq-100 in oversold territory. Thursday marked the biggest day of retail selling since the Covid pandemic, according to Vanda Research.
“Retail has not proven to be the dip buyers that they have been in the past,” Sonders told CNBC’s “Fast Money” on Friday. “You saw a really heavy amount of net selling … we may not fully be washed out yet, but we’ll have to see whether that retail trader at some point decides to step back in.”
According to Sonders, near-term attention should center on corporate shifts in capital expenditure strategies and outlooks for upcoming profit margins.
Investors are looking ahead to key AI-related earnings this week from CoreWeave, Cisco, and Applied Materials as they assess the outlook for tech and whether the recent selloff has further to run. Market participants will also watch for consumer price index figures on Tuesday and producer price index numbers on Friday to gauge the Federal Reserve’s next move.
Traders will receive September wholesale inventories data at 10 a.m. ET on Monday, alongside quarterly earnings reports from Take-Two Interactive Software, Occidental Petroleum, KKR, Constellation Energy, and Skydance.