By Purvi Agarwal and Niket Nishant
Aug 28 (Reuters) – Futures tied to the Nasdaq 100 inched lower as an AI-fueled rally cooled off ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s much-anticipated Jackson Hole appearance on Friday.
Warsh’s speech, his first at the Fed’s annual gathering in Wyoming, will round out a busy week packed with results from corporate heavyweights such as Nvidia and Salesforce, alongside a batch of fresh economic data.
While the central bank chief has been tight-lipped about the interest rate outlook, the U.S. Treasury’s move to calm bond markets last week has put his speech in sharper focus.
Investors could scrutinize his comments for any hints on how the central bank plans to approach monetary policy after mixed inflation data this month.
“Warsh does not need to pre-commit to a September hike at Jackson Hole. He needs to establish that inflation failing to decline in the weeks or months ahead is sufficient for tightening,” said analysts at StoneX.
“That would close the gap with his committee and preserve flexibility to hold in September. We are skeptical he delivers that clarity.”
Three Fed officials on Thursday issued inflation warnings, with at least two reinstating their stance to raise interest rates.
Money market participants are pricing in a 35.9% chance of a rate hike in September, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
In the market, chip stocks pulled back after a rally in the previous session, sparked by Nvidia’s blockbuster forecast that indicated the AI-driven rally had room to run.
“For the chip companies, investors are hungry for a new catalyst,” said Mike Reynolds, vice president of investment strategy at Glenmede.
“Markets have gotten their arms around how data center deployment will lead to potentially higher revenues. But the question is, what’s next? And it hasn’t been obvious in some cases.”
Nvidia slipped 0.5% in premarket trading, and Micron Technology and Intel were down 1.8% each.
Marvell Technology lost 6.9% on doubts over the timing of revenue from its AI chip agreement with Alphabet’s Google despite an increase to its 2027 revenue forecast.
Meanwhile, PayPal fell 15.4% after Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that a consortium of buyout firm Advent and payment processor Stripe had decided to abandon their pursuit of the payments firm.
Gap shares advanced 14.2% after naming industry veteran Michael Francis as Old Navy’s new CEO and raising its annual profit forecast.
At 7:12 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 15 points, or 0.03%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 4 points, or 0.05%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 88.5 points, or 0.3%.
Markets will also parse the final reading of the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment for August, and Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee’s speech.
Wall Street’s main indexes are still on track for weekly gains. If levels hold through close, the indexes could claw back ground lost last week after surging bond yields hammered stocks.
(Reporting by Purvi Agarwal and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
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