Pre-Bell｜Wall Street Futures Rise on Boost from Chip Stocks

U.S. stock index futures rose on Wednesday as chipmakers rallied after ASML's quarterly results, while investors parsed fresh big bank earnings following strong reports from lenders that helped lift markets in the prior session.

Market Snapshot

At 8: 10 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 249 points, or 0.54%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 51.5 points, or 0.77%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 242.5 points, or 0.98%.

Pre-Market Movers

Crop traders Archer Daniels Midland and Bunge Global rose 2.7% and 4.4%, respectively, after Trump said his administration was considering terminating some business with China connected with cooking oil and "other elements of trade."

ASML Holding, the Dutch semiconductor-equipment maker, reported third-quarter earnings that beat expectations but revenue that missed. Guidance, however, was upbeat. ASML previously had said that tariff uncertainty prevented it from guaranteeing growth in 2026, but on Wednesday the company reiterated its 2025 growth expectations and said it doesn't expect 2026 sales to be below 2025 levels. The stock rose 4%. Other semiconductor shares also rose in premarket trading. TSMC, Broadcom up around 4%; Nvidia, AMD up over 2%.

Bank of America jumped 4% as third-quarter earnings from the Charlotte-based bank topped Wall Street expectations. Bank of America's third-quarter profit rose 23% from a year earlier to $8.5 billion. Per-share earnings were $1.06 a share, surpassing the 95 cents expected by analysts. Revenue rose 11% to $28.1 billion.

Morgan Stanley's shares jumped 3.6% as profit rose in the third quarter as its investment bankers rode a resurgence in dealmaking. The bank posted a net income of $4.6 billion, or $2.80 per share, for the three months ended September 30, it said on Wednesday. That compares with $3.2 billion, or $1.88 per share, a year ago.

Wells Fargo was the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 on Tuesday and top gainer from among the big U.S. banks that issued third-quarter earnings reports, rising 7.2%. ( JPMorgan Chase fell 1.9%, Goldman Sachs declined 2%, and Citigroup rose 3.9%). Shares of San Francisco-based Wells Fargo closed at $84.56, just below their all-time high of $85.16, after the bank reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and raised its target for return on tangible common equity to between 17% and 18%. The stock rose 0.9% in premarket trading.

PNC Financial Services fell 2% even as third-quarter earnings and revenue rose from a year earlier and beat analysts' estimates.

Walmart declined 0.2% in the premarket session after closing up 5% on Tuesday at a record high of $107.21. The world's largest retailer announced it was partnering with OpenAI to allow customers to buy its products through ChatGPT using Instant Checkout. Entering Wednesday, Walmart has risen nearly 19% this year, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Intel rose 2%, paring some losses following a 4.3% drop in the previous session. Earlier this week, analysts at Bank of America downgraded shares to Underperform, saying shares have gone "too far, too fast" and that fundamentals remain challenged. Coming into Wednesday, the stock has risen 78% this year, boosted by the U.S. government and Nvidia both taking stakes in the chip maker.

Astera Labs bounced back 4.6% in premarket trading after shares tumbled 19% Tuesday following a deal between other artificial-intelligence players Oracle and Advanced Micro Devices. The companies said they'll partner to launch an AI "supercluster," using networking solutions that Astera investors fear could hurt sales of its connectivity chips.

Sunrun rose 4.8% to $21.68. Analysts at BMO Capital upgraded the stock to Market Perform from Underperform and hiked their price target to $19 from $10. The analysts see the solar company now in a better cash position to be able to boost shareholder returns via share buybacks or dividend in 2026.

LVMH soared 14% in Paris trading after the French luxury conglomerate reported growth for the first time this year in the third quarter. Sales rose by 1% year over year to EUR19.1 billion euros ($22.1 billion), beating FactSet expectations of EUR18.2 billion. Notably, sales in both of LVMH's top markets -- the U.S. and Asia excluding Japan -- increased, up 3% and 2%, respectively.

Market News

BlackRock, Nvidia, xAI, and Microsoft Lead $40bn Takeover of Aligned Data Centers

An investment consortium including BlackRock, Nvidia, xAI, and Microsoft has agreed to acquire Texas-based Aligned Data Centers from Macquarie Asset Management for $40 billion, marking the first deal under their year-old AI Infrastructure Partnership.

The group, which also includes Global Infrastructure Partners and Abu Dhabi’s MGX, will use a $100 billion capital pool to fund data center development supporting the growing demand for AI computing power.