Stocks looked set to edge higher on Wednesday, as investors waited for third-quarter earnings from chip maker Nvidia that will determine whether the artificial-intelligence trade can get going again following a recent wobble.
Futures tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 8 points, effectively trading flat. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.1%, and contracts tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were also 0.1% higher.
Bitcoin clawed back some of its recent losses, climbing 0.6% to $91,776 over the past 24 hours. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed 1 basis point to 4.13%. The dollar was up 0.1% against a weighted basket of its peers, and gold rose 0.6% to $4,089 an ounce.
It’s been a torrid past few days for the market, with investors dumping risk assets as worries about bloated AI valuations mount. Wall Street will be hoping that Nvidia’s results, due after Wednesday’s close, can halt the declines, with the S&P and Dow both on four-session losing streaks.
Even splashy deals have failed to boost sentiment. Nvidia and Microsoft committed to invest $10 billion and $5 billion respectively in the AI start-up Anthropic, which committed to purchase $30 billion worth of compute capacity from Microsoft. That didn’t prevent both of the Magnificent Seven stocks from tumbling, as investors worry that the AI trade may be becoming one big circular money machine.
“Unlike several recent AI deals which led to an immediate rally, there wasn’t a reaction in the share price of [Nvidia or Microsoft] following the news,” Deutsche Bank macro strategist Henry Allen said. “So it goes to show how sentiment has turned more negative in the last few weeks, with the circular AI deals being treated with increasing caution as the conversation around a potential bubble has gathered pace.”
Nvidia isn’t the only company that will report earnings on Wednesday, with reports from home-improvement chain Lowe’s and retailer Target expected ahead of the opening bell. But the early signs pointed to a day of choppy trading, ahead of the main event after the close.