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Stocks looked set to rise on Thursday, as signs of robust demand for artificial intelligence helped investors to look past rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
Futures tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 85 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures ticked up 0.2%, and contracts tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were 0.4% higher.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note slid 1 point to 4.03%, and the dollar was down 0.2% against a weighted basket of its peers. Gold futures hit yet another record, jumping 1.1% to $4,255 an ounce. Bitcoin was down 1.6% over the past 24 hours.
It’s been a turbulent week for Wall Street, but on Wednesday equities were lifted by upbeat guidance from Dutch chip tool maker ASML, which signaled solid AI demand. TSMC posted solid results on Thursday, which ought to keep the tech rally surging.
AI has helped the market to look past trade tensions, although the three major indexes are yet to pare back their losses from a brutal selloff on Friday, which came after President Donald Trump threatened to hike tariffs on China.
“It seems unlikely that the damage will be entirely erased unless and until participants do indeed have faith that the latest round of tariff threats are indeed just that,” Michael Brown, strategist at the foreign exchange brokerage Pepperstone, said. “In the meantime, choppy and indecisive conditions are likely to prevail.”
Investors will also be keeping a close eye on events in Washington as the government shutdown drags on, with no immediate end in sight to the funding impasse. BNY Mellon, Charles Schwab, and U.S. Bancorp are among the companies set to report earnings ahead of the opening bell.
