U.S. stock futures climbed sharply on Thursday as technology and semiconductor shares rallied following strong updates from Micron Technology and Qualcomm.
S&P 500 futures advanced 0.75% to 7,483.50 points by 03:07 ET, while Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 2.1% to 30,133.0 points. Dow Jones futures posted a smaller gain of 0.1%, reaching 52,346.0 points.
The rebound followed a largely negative Wall Street session, during which investors remained cautious about technology stocks after a major sector sell-off earlier in the week.
Market attention is now turning to upcoming U.S. inflation, gross domestic product and jobless claims data for further signals about the economy and the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate outlook.
Micron Shares Soar After Strong Earnings
Micron Technology shares surged more than 19% in premarket trading after the memory chip manufacturer reported strong quarterly earnings and issued guidance that exceeded market expectations.
The company highlighted robust demand from artificial intelligence applications and data centres. Micron also expects AI-driven demand to keep memory chip supplies tight, potentially supporting higher prices.
The upbeat results helped ease concerns that valuations across the artificial intelligence and semiconductor industries had become overstretched. Those concerns contributed to heavy losses in chip stocks earlier in the week.
SK Hynix and Samsung Join Semiconductor Recovery
Micron’s positive outlook also supported shares of its South Korean competitors, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, which had been among the companies most affected by the recent chip-sector sell-off.
Both stocks rose sharply on Thursday.
SK Hynix reached a record high after announcing plans to raise approximately $29 billion through an offering of American Depository Receipts. The company is also seeking a secondary listing on the Nasdaq.
Qualcomm Boosts AI Optimism
Qualcomm shares jumped 13.3% after the chip designer forecast that its data-centre business could generate $15 billion in annual revenue by 2029.
The projection reinforced optimism that semiconductor companies could remain among the biggest beneficiaries of the global artificial intelligence investment boom.
Positive announcements from Micron and Qualcomm sparked broad gains across technology and chipmaking stocks.
Memory and Chip Stocks Rally
Seagate Technology, Western Digital and SanDisk gained between 8% and 13% in premarket trading.
Arm Holdings advanced 6%, while Intel climbed 5.7%. AMD rose 3.5%, Broadcom gained 2% and Nvidia added approximately 1%.
The widespread rally suggested that investors were returning to semiconductor stocks following the sharp losses recorded earlier in the week.
Wall Street Ends Previous Session Mixed
Major U.S. stock indexes finished Wednesday’s session with mixed results as investors remained cautious about technology stocks.
A rotation into economically sensitive companies helped the Dow Jones Industrial Average rise 0.35%.
However, the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.4%, while the S&P 500 declined 0.1%.
PCE Inflation Data Takes Centre Stage
Investors are now awaiting the May Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, which is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation.
The report will be closely monitored for clues about the future direction of U.S. interest rates.
Core PCE inflation is expected to reach 3.4%, remaining well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual target.
Persistent inflation has raised concerns that the central bank could keep interest rates unchanged for longer or consider another rate increase during the year.
A final estimate of first-quarter U.S. GDP and the latest weekly jobless claims figures are also scheduled for release on Thursday.
