Pre-Bell｜US Stock Futures Rise As Chips Gain On Micron Results; AMD Jumped 3%; Micron Gained 1.9% and Nvidia Up 1.4%

U.S. stock index futures rose on Thursday, signaling indexes were nearing their record peaks, as robust earnings from memory-chip maker Micron fueled optimism around artificial intelligence.

Market Snapshot

At 08:21 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 88 points, or 0.2% and S&P 500 E-minis were up 19.75 points, or 0.32%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 108 points, or 0.48%

Pre-Market Movers

Nvidia was up 1.4% in the premarket session after the leading maker of artificial-intelligence chips rose 4.3% Wednesday and closed at a record high of $154.31. It finished Wednesday as the most valuable U.S. company with a market capitalization of $3.765 trillion, higher than Microsoft's $3.659 trillion. Coming into Thursday, Nvidia shares have risen almost 15% this year. AMD stock jumped another 3% in premarket trading. Shares have gained about 30% in June.

Micron Technology, the memory-chip maker, gained 1.9% after reporting fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings that easily topped Wall Street estimates as revenue rose 37% to $9.3 billion and exceeded expectations. Revenue from high-bandwidth memory, which is used in AI systems, jumped nearly 50% quarter over quarter. "Data center revenue more than doubled year-over-year and reached a quarterly record, and consumer-oriented end markets had strong sequential growth," said CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said. Micron forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $10.4 billion to $11 billion, better than estimates of $9.9 billion.

Tesla shares were wavering in premarket trading. The electric-vehicle company fell 3.8% on Wednesday after Tesla sold 13,863 cars in Europe in May, down 28% from a year earlier, while overall EV sales in the region jumped 25%.

Shares of Coinbase Global, the cryptocurrency exchange, were up 0.3% after rising 3.1% on Wednesday to $355.37, the stock's highest close since Nov. 9, 2021, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Entering Thursday's session, Coinbase has risen 44% in June, putting it on pace for its best month since November 2024. The company has benefited from Senate passage of the Genius Act, a bill clarifying how stablecoins are regulated.

U.S.-listed shares of BP were up 0.2% after The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Shell was in early stage talks to acquire its oil company rival. Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal said BP was "considering the approach carefully" and talks were progressing slowly. A Shell spokeswoman told Barron's that no talks were taking place, saying it was "further market speculation." Shell's American depositary receipts rose 2.6%.

Investment-banking company Jefferies Financial reported fiscal second-quarter earnings that fell from a year earlier and missed analysts' estimates. Jefferies said net revenue in the period of $1.63 billion reflects "a resilient full-service investment banking and capital markets business against a backdrop of significant uncertainty related to U.S. policy and geopolitical events which meaningfully slowed activity levels for the first two months of the quarter." Shares fell 2.4%.

McCormick was up 4.9% after the spices maker posted fiscal second-quarter adjusted earnings of 69 cents a share on net sales of $1.66 billion versus analysts' forecasts for profit of 65 cents on sales of $1.658 billion.

MGM Resorts fell 1.1% to $33.50. Citizens JMP downgraded the casino company to Market Perform from Outperform without a price target.

Acuity rose 7% after the lighting company posted fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of $5.12 a share, better than Wall Street estimates of $4.44.

H.B. Fuller jumped 6.3% following quarterly adjusted earnings that topped analysts' estimates and as the maker of adhesives and other industrial products raised its fiscal-year outlook.

Worthington Steel rose 17%. The company posted fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $1.10 a share on sales of $832.9 million. A year earlier, Worthington Steel reported profit of $1.06 a share on sales of $911 million.

Earnings reports are expected after the closing bell Thursday from Nike and Concentrix.

Nike rose 0.4% ahead of fiscal fourth-quarter earnings from the sports-apparel company. Analysts expect earnings to likely have taken a beating from drastic measures that new CEO Elliott Hill has been taking to turn around the sneaker maker.

Market News

Trump-backed crypto firm is planning stablecoin audit, new app

Zak Folkman, the co-founder of U.S. President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency platform World Liberty Financial, said on Wednesday that the company will issue an audit of its stablecoin "within days" and that it planned a new app.

Folkman also hinted that WLF's governance token, known as WLFI, could soon become tradable in an interview at the Permissionless conference on Wednesday, organized by crypto media company Blockworks in Brooklyn, New York.

Palantir signs deal with The Nuclear Company to use AI and boost nuclear construction

Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) said on Thursday that it has signed a deal with The Nuclear Company in an effort to use artificial intelligence and boost construction of nuclear power in the U.S.

The deal will see the two companies co-develop and create an AI software system known as NOS (nuclear operating system), specifically for the purpose of nuclear construction. NOS will help in the construction of nuclear reactors and transform the process into a “data-driven, predictable process,” the companies said in a statement.