Futures inch up with eye on interest rates, Nvidia results

[August 27, 2024]  (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were flat to marginally higher on Tuesday as investors held on to hopes for imminent policy easing, with highly anticipated results from Nvidia and crucial economic data expected later in the week.

The benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq took a pause from previous week's rally on Monday as investors sold tech-related stocks and shifted their focus to the upcoming earnings report from Nvidia, whose chips are widely used in the artificial intelligence space.

Nvidia's shares that led a recent bull-market rally were up 0.5% premarket ahead of the company's results on Wednesday, which is likely to show that quarterly revenue more than doubled and even a slight miss could hurt shares.

Some investors are concerned about the company's ability to meet lofty expectations and have questioned the pace of spending on AI by Nvidia's largest customers.

"Nvidia's earnings on Wednesday is by far the most important event in global equities," said Peter Garnry, chief investment strategist at investment platform Saxo.

"Given the underlying momentum in the AI industry and the results we have seen from other companies in the AI ecosystem, we lean in direction of Nvidia beating consensus and lifting guidance for fiscal Q3 surpassing estimates."

Other chip stocks such as Broadcom rose 0.6% and Advanced Micro Devices added 0.4%, after the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index notched a more than 2.5% decline on Monday.

At 05:32 a.m., Dow E-minis were up 18 points, or 0.04%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 6.5 points, or 0.12%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 44.5 points, or 0.23%.

Optimism about lower borrowing costs starting next month following Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's explicit endorsement last week also buoyed sentiment.

A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., March 7, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

The blue-chip Dow closed at a record high for the first time in more than a month in the previous session and the benchmark S&P 500 is about 0.8% from its own milestone.

Traders are now betting on either a 25-basis point or a 50-basis point rate cut in September. Odds of the former stand at a higher 71.5%, while those of a 50-bps cut are at 28.5%, according to CME Group's Fed Watch tool.

The next catalyst will be the July Personal Consumption Expenditure data on Friday, that could offer markets greater clarity on how the central bank's policy easing could pan out.

Meanwhile, UBS Global Wealth Management raised the odds of a U.S. recession to 25% from 20%, citing revised estimates of job growth and the recent July labor report that showed softness in the factors determining workers' income.

Paramount Global slid 2.5% after media veteran Edgar Bronfman Jr withdrew from the race for the company, clearing the way for Skydance Media to take control of Shari Redstone's media empire.

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

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