US Stock Futures Drop as Nvidia Forecast Clouds AI Rally Outlook
(Bloomberg) -- US stock futures slipped after Nvidia Corp. gave a revenue forecast that fell short of the highest analyst estimates, possibly adding weight to concerns over the sustainability of the artificial intelligence boom.
Futures on the Nasdaq 100 Index were down 0.6% as of 12:34 p.m. in Hong Kong on Thursday while contracts on the S&P 500 Index fell 0.3%, both paring earlier losses. Semiconductor-related stocks dragged a key Asian equity benchmark lower.
Despite a recent recovery, the Nasdaq 100 is still down from its record high as investors try to gauge whether this year’s massive rally in AI stocks has gotten too far ahead of the profits the technology will actually deliver. At the same time, expectations for interest rate cuts have helped spur some rotation out of tech and into sectors that had been lagging.
Nvidia’s shares slumped more than 8% in post-market trading, with the company’s announcement of production snags with its new Blackwell chips also weighing on sentiment.
The market may be disappointed that the chipmaker’s results weren’t as stellar as prior reports, but “this seems like just near-term noise” amid continued underlying strength, Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge wrote in a note. Slower growth is “just a function of extremely difficult comparisons, and it’s something the whole world has been aware of.”
Declines in US stocks Wednesday ahead of Nvidia’s report show investors were on alert for negative surprises. Futures coming off their intraday lows could indicate that a further drop will be limited by continued optimism for the chipmaker’s outlook.
Nvidia management’s assurance that it expects the Blackwell chip to bring in “several billion dollars” of revenue in the fourth quarter “was important and should dispel most worst-case-scenario bear talking points,” TD Cowen analyst Matthew Ramsay wrote in a note. “But formal guidance for the January quarter is likely required before the debate is truly put to rest.”
