Nasdaq Futures Lead Gains on Bellwether Nvidia

U.S. stock index futures rose Thursday as AI bellwether Nvidia's upbeat forecast soothed concerns of cooling demand in the industry, while investors gauged the implications of the Trump administration's latest threats on global trade.

Nvidia added less than 1% in choppy premarket trading, far tamer than some of the stock's previous post-results surges, as the company's revenue growth slowed further.

"It's telling that Nvidia's latest set of results beat earnings expectations for the ninth quarter in a row and failed to win over the market," said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.

Fellow chip stocks Broadcom added 2.1% and Advanced Micro Devices gained 1%, while megacaps Microsoft and Meta rose 0.4% and 1.4%, respectively.

The launch of low-cost AI models from China's DeepSeek in January had paused a two-year, tech-driven bull rally on Wall Street, with Nvidia losing half a trillion dollars in market value in a single day. More recently, an analyst report suggesting Microsoft was scrapping some data center leases also raised concerns of overcapacity.

"The prospect of being able run AI services more cheaply, together with growing uncertainties around the economic outlook, mean companies will be paying more attention to tech-related spending," Coatsworth said.

At 05:20 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 112 points, or 0.26%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 33.5 points, or 0.56%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 136.75 points, or 0.65%.

All three major U.S. indexes were on track for monthly declines, as the Trump administration's global trade policies and signs of stalling economic growth have also fueled aversion to riskier assets.

In his latest threats on trade partners, U.S. President Donald Trump floated a 25% "reciprocal" tariff on European cars and other goods.

But he sowed confusion on the timeline of Mexican and Canadian duties after he said they could take effect on April 2, while a White House official said the previous March 4 deadline remained in effect.

On the data front, second estimates for quarterly gross domestic product and a report on weekly jobless claims are due at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Monthly Personal Consumption Expenditure data, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, is due on Friday and likely to determine the outlook for monetary policy easing this year.

According to data compiled by LSEG, traders expect the central bank to lower borrowing costs by at least 50 basis points by December.

Comments from policymakers including Thomas Barkin, Jeffrey Schmid, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr and Governor Michelle Bowman are expected to reiterate the central bank's cautious stance on easing interest rates further.

Dow component Salesforce forecast fiscal 2026 revenue below expectations, sending shares of the business software provider down 4.7%.

Snowflake rose 10.7% after the data analytics provider forecast fiscal 2026 product revenue above analysts' estimates.

Moderna dropped 3.3% after a report said U.S. health officials are reevaluating a $590 million contract that was awarded to the drugmaker for the development of its bird flu vaccine.

(Reporting by Sukriti Gupta and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)