Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures rose on Thursday as Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) extended its gain, as investors returning from the Juneteenth vacation anticipated economic data and Fed officials’ comments to firm up bets on interest rate reduction this year.
Nvidia rose 3.4% in premarket trading after surpassing Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) on Tuesday to become the world’s most valuable company, with a market value of $3.335 trillion, as its high-end processors play a key role in the race to dominate artificial intelligence technology.
“Once again, Nvidia is the standout performer… as usual, there are concerns about the U.S. market’s lack of breadth, with so much of the overall performance concentrated in the stock prices of a few corporations,” said David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation.
“The size and outperformance of this select group is reflected in its valuation, which is way above that of the rest of the (S&P 500) constituents.”
The AI chip leader’s continuous ascent to new peaks, along with softer-than-expected U.S. retail sales data, pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to record highs on Tuesday.
Other semiconductor stocks that climbed between 1% and 2.4% include Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL) Technology, Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU), and Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM).
Investors will now turn their attention to more economic data, such as May housing numbers, jobless claims for the week ending June 15, and the Philadelphia Fed Business Index, all of which are due before the market opens.
Investors will also be watching Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari’s comments at 0845 ET for any indication of interest rate expectations. Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly are also scheduled to speak after the closing bell.
According to LSEG’s FedWatch statistics, money markets presently perceive a 59.6% possibility of the US central bank cutting interest rates by 25 basis points in September.
Yields on the two-year Treasury note, which closely reflect interest rate forecasts, and the benchmark 10-year note rose 3-4 basis points.
At 7:18 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 33 points, or 0.08%; S&P 500 e-minis were up 22.25 points, or 0.4%; and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 120.75 points, or 0.6%.
Other movers included Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) and Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:SMCI), which jumped 3.1% and 4.7%, respectively, after Elon Musk said on social media platform X that the businesses would donate server racks for the supercomputer that his startup xAI is creating.
