U.S. stock futures stabilized early Wednesday after another losing session on Wall Street as investors’ focus turned to Nvidia’s third-quarter earnings after the closing bell. Its stock fell 3% Tuesday, part of a tech-led selloff across all the major U.S. indexes in the last few trading sessions fuelled by rising uncertainty over the artificial-intelligence boom. Investors’ response to Nvidia’s earnings will be key to market direction. Ahead of that, on the economic front, minutes from the Federal Reserve’s October policy meeting will provide key clues to the interest-rate outlook, followed by the September nonfarm payroll report before the open on Thursday.
International stock markets were mixed Wednesday, the dollar eased a touch and gold recovered on safe-haven demand.
—U.S. stock futures for the S&P 500 were last up 0.1%, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were flat and futures tied to the Nasdaq rose 0.1%.
—In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.2% shortly after the open. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.2%, even as gold and silver miners rose as precious-metals prices ticked higher.
—Stocks in Asia ended mixed; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.4% while China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.2%. Falls in utilities pulled South Korea’s Kospi down 0.6%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.3% while Japanese government bond yields hit multiyear highs on concern that the government could launch economic stimulus that will strain its fiscal position further.
—The U.S. dollar edged lower, with investors currently split on whether the Fed will cut rates in December. The DXY dollar index against a basket of major currencies fell 0.1% to 99.504. U.S. Treasury yields were little changed.
—Bitcoin remained weak after reaching an almost seven-month low Tuesday and was recently down 0.7% to $91,841 after reaching a low of $89,286 Tuesday, according to LSEG data.
—Elsewhere, sterling fell slightly after data showed U.K. inflation eased in line with expectations in October, firming expectations for the Bank of England to cut interest rates in December. The market is now pricing in a 79% chance of a December cut, according to LSEG data. Yields on U.K. government bonds eased, with the 10-year gilt yield down 1 basis point to 4.535% following the inflation data, according to Tradeweb.
—Oil prices fell on reports of rising U.S. crude inventories, though further losses are capped by concerns over Russian flows. Brent crude and WTI were both down 1% to $64.28 and $60.09 a barrel, respectively.
Write to Barcelona Editors at barcelonaeditors@dowjones.com
