US STOCKS-US stock futures dip as Intel dives, geopolitical concerns linger

By Sruthi Shankar and Pranav Kashyap

Jan 23 (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures slipped on Friday, setting the S&P 500 and Nasdaq up for a second consecutive weekly drop, as Intel tumbled on a downbeat outlook and lingering geopolitical concerns kept risk appetite in check.

Stocks have rebounded in the past two sessions following Tuesday's sharp selloff triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to impose tariffs on European allies until Washington was allowed to buy Greenland.

Trump later tempered tariff threats and ruled out taking Greenland by force, but the S&P 500 .SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC were still set to close the week lower. Safe-haven flows persisted amid uncertainty over potential Greenland negotiations, sending gold to a record high and putting it on track for its best week in nearly six years. GOL/

At 06:57 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis YMcv1 were down 111 points, or 0.22%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were down 9.75 points, or 0.14%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were down 42 points, or 0.16%.

INTEL DISAPPOINTS

Intel's INTC.O shares slid 12.8% in premarket trading after the chipmaker forecast quarterly revenue and profit below market estimates, saying it struggled to satisfy demand for its server chips used in AI data centers. Its shares have surged about 50% since the start of the year.

Many of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks, including Apple AAPL.O, Tesla TSLA.O and Microsoft MSFT.O, are set to report earnings next week. Given their weightage on indexes, their outlooks will be closely watched to see how much juice remains in the growth stories which so far have justified their sky-high valuations.

Driven by a strong U.S. economy and expectations of interest rate cuts this year, market gains have broadened beyond the megacap names to other pockets in the stock market. Both the small-cap Russell 2000 .RUT and the Dow Jones Transports indexes .DJT touched record highs on Thursday.

Nvidia NVDA.O rose 1.3% after Bloomberg News reported Chinese officials have told Alibaba 9988.HK, Tencent 0700.HK and ByteDance that they can prepare orders for Nvidia's H200 AI chips.

FEDERAL RESERVE RATE DECISION

The Federal Reserve is expected to hold rates at 3.5%–3.75% next week, but investors will comb through the statement and Chair Jerome Powell's remarks for signals on what is next amid a bumpy economic backdrop. CME's FedWatch tool shows markets penciling in the first cut for June.

After some better-than-expected economic data releases on Thursday, investors await the S&P Global's business activity surveys for January and University of Michigan's consumer sentiment data later in the day.

Trump, who has criticized Powell for waiting too long to cut interest rates, said he will soon announce his pick for the next Fed chair.

Among other movers, Intuitive Surgical ISRG.O rose 3.3% after it beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit and revenue on growing demand for its surgical robots used in minimally invasive procedures.

SLB SLB.N rose 1% after beating estimates for fourth-quarter profit.

U.S.-listed shares of silver miners such as Hecla Mining HL.N and Coeur Mining CDE.N rose 2% and 0.7%, respectively, as silver prices XAG= touched record highs and neared $100-per-ounce mark for the first time.