US pre-open: Futures higher as chip stocks gain on Nvidia news

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Thursday following the S&P 500 and Nasdaq's fresh record closes.

As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.68%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.25% and 0.22%, respectively.

The Dow closed 67.36 points lower on Wednesday, extending losses recorded in the previous session following April's hotter-than-expected producer price index.

Chip stocks were in focus prior to the open on Thursday after the US cleared around ten Chinese companies to buy Nvidia's H200 artificial intelligence chips. However, no deliveries had yet been made as the deal remains caught between Washington's export controls and Beijing's efforts to reduce reliance on foreign technology. According to a report from Reuters, the Commerce Department has approved companies including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com to purchase Nvidia's H200 chips, the company's second-most powerful AI processor. Lenovo and Foxconn were also approved as distributors, the report said.

Separately, Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the US was now able to engage China on artificial intelligence because it remains "in the lead", as Washington and Beijing agreed a protocol on best practices for the fast‑advancing technology.

Speaking to CNBC during Donald Trump's two‑day meeting in Beijing with Chinese president Xi Jinping, Bessent said the two countries were preparing to formalise how they would manage AI risks and prevent sensitive models falling into the hands of non‑state actors. The remarks come as markets continue to track geopolitical tensions and the regulatory backdrop for AI - a sector that has been a major driver of US equity valuations in recent months.

On the macro front, weekly jobless claims data from the Labor Department will be out at 1330 BST, as will April retail sales numbers, while March business inventories figures will follow at 1500 BST.

In the corporate space, Cisco Systems rallied after the software firm posted better‑than‑expected third‑quarter results and announced plans to cut roughly 4,000 jobs.

Yeti and Klarna were both slated to report earnings before the open.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com