US stock futures posted modest gains Thursday as bond yields stabilized near multi-year highs and investors digested latest commentary from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller. Chip stocks fell after Broadcom Inc.’s results.
Futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 Index were up less than 0.2% as of 8:35 a.m. in New York after Waller said his next decision on interest rates will be “heavily influenced” by August inflation data due next week. Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed.
Broadcom shares fell 3.3% premarket after the chipmaker’s results and forecast were seen as underwhelming, even as it predicted a boom in artificial intelligence chip sales over the next two years. An exchange-traded fund tracking chip names fell 1.3% ahead of the opening bell.
See more: August Review: Markets Advance Despite Familiar Tensions
“The AI chipmakers continue to deliver, but thanks to their run-up during the first six months of 2026, big sector-wide gains are getting harder to come by,” wrote Mike Dickson, head of research at Horizon Investments.
Energy shares drifted higher as US oil prices jumped nearly 2% to briefly top $93, marking the latest bout of volatility for crude prices, which have swung sharply as the US and Iran intensified tit-for-tat military strikes in recent days. Now Wall Street is grappling with a range of risks, from the durability of the AI trade, to interest rates possibly rising as inflation persists.
Among single-stock movers, Snowflake Inc. rallied 23% premarket after the software company’s quarterly results beat expectations and raised its full-year forecast for product revenue. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. fell 4.5% after reporting increasing sales that didn’t meet high expectations from investors.
Investors are gearing up for Friday’s jobs report for clues on the Fed’s path for interest rates. Economists estimate that the employment report, due at 8:30 a.m. in Washington on Friday, will show US employers added 55,000 jobs in August. Such a result would be broadly in-line with average job growth this year.
The S&P 500 is projected to swing just 0.7% in either direction on Friday, in line with the average realized move on jobs-report days over the past 12 months, options-market data compiled by Citigroup Inc. show. Stuart Kaiser, the firm’s head of US equity trading strategy, says Friday’s implied move, based on prices of S&P 500 option straddles as of Tuesday’s close, is too low.
Elsewhere, Tesla Inc. is outperforming its Magnificent Seven peers, rising 2% ahead of the opening bell with the electric-vehicle maker set to host a Cybercab event in Austin, Texas. Meta Platforms Inc. rose 0.7% premarket after the social-media giant released its most powerful AI model yet.
NetApp Inc. dropped more than 9% premarket, even after the data storage and management company reported first-quarter results that beat expectations and raised its full-year forecast. The stock has been a strong performer this year, up nearly 70% as of Wednesday’s close.
Meantime, Ciena Corp. shares rose 1.4% premarket, after the communications equipment company reported third-quarter results that beat expectations and gave a revenue outlook that is above the analyst consensus.
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