(Reuters) – Futures tied to the Nasdaq gained on Wednesday as semiconductor-related stocks rose after chip equipment maker ASML’s quarterly orders topped estimates, with focus also on a raft of company results and the Federal Reserve’s rate verdict later in the day.
The Fed’s first interest rate decision of the year is due at 2 p.m. ET, with markets widely expecting the central bank to hold its lending rate steady.
“Market pricing has shifted significantly higher since the U.S. presidential election, and indicates basically zero percent probability of a cut today,” Amanda Sundström, FX & FI strategist at SEB, said.
Markets have been on edge lately about President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs, which could exacerbate inflationary pressures and slow Fed rate cuts.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that Trump still plans to make good on his promise to issue tariffs on Canada and Mexico on Saturday.
The December reading of the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, a crucial metric in assessing the inflation trajectory, is due on Friday.
Point72 Asset Management’s founder Steven Cohen said he would expect the stock market to reach a peak soon amid inflation pressure and uncertainties around Trump’s policies on tariffs and immigration.
On Wednesday, General Dynamics, UPS and T-Mobile US are some of the companies scheduled to report quarterly earnings before the bell.
Earnings from “Magnificent 7” members Microsoft, Facebook-parent Meta and Tesla are expected after markets close.
Apple will also report quarterly numbers later this week.
Meanwhile, shares of semiconductor firms and related equipment makers advanced in premarket trading after Dutch firm ASML reported fourth-quarter bookings of 7.09 billion euros ($7.39 billion), a number that far exceeded expectations.
KLA Corp, Applied Materials, Lam Research and Micron Technology advanced close to 4% each.
At 04:41 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 63 points, or 0.14%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 1.5 points, or 0.02% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 67.25 points, or 0.32%.
The Nasdaq jumped 2% in the last session, while the S&P 500 rose close to 1%, as Nvidia and other artificial intelligence-linked tech shares recovered somewhat from steep losses earlier this week.
Nvidia edged 0.2% higher after gaining close to 9% on Tuesday. Its shares were hammered on Monday after Chinese startup DeepSeek launched an AI model that it said was cost-effective and ran on less-advanced chips, stirring doubts about United States’ lead in the technology.
Among other stocks, cybersecurity and cloud services firm F5 jumped 15.4% after forecasting second-quarter revenue above estimates and beating first-quarter revenue estimates.
Chipmaker Qorvo lost 4.1% after reporting lower third-quarter revenue.
(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
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