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U.S. equity futures extended gains in early Wednesday trading, with tech stocks leading the advance, as investors continue to ride a momentum wave tied to the flurry of new policy aims and tariff hints from President Donald Trump.
Stocks ended firmly higher on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 rising 0.88% and reclaiming the 6,000 point mark amid a pullback in Treasury yields and optimism over Trump’s focus on deregulation, focused tariff strategies and the prospect of solid corporate earnings into the fourth quarter reporting season.
Tech stocks are likely to pace early gains in the Wednesday session, however, following the unveiling of a new AI joint venture called ‘Stargate’ that will include an initial $100 billion investment from SoftBank, Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and OpenAI.
The move followed Trump’s decision to rescind and Executive Order from former President Joe Biden that called for a more careful approach to AI expansion, focusing on clean energy usage and guardrails that required safety and transparency.
Nvidia (NVDA) , Oracle and Palantir (PLTR) were firmly higher and active in premarket trading, with Intel (INTC) , Broadcom (AVGO) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) all posting solid early gains.
Netflix (NFLX) shares were also on the move, rising 14.22% in premarket to indicate an opening bell price of $993.34 each, following a better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings report that included record revenues and subscriber additions.
That’s helping lift Nasdaq futures, which are now pricing in an opening bell gain of around 185 points at the start of trading, with the S&P 500 called 27 points higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which closed at the highest level since December 11 last night, is called 75 points higher.
In the bond market, benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields were holding at 4.568% heading into the start of the New York trading session, with a focus on the auction of $13 billion in new 20-year bond later in the session.
The U.S. dollar index, meanwhile, was marked 0.26% lower against a basket of six global currencies following Trump’s reference to a smaller-than-expected 10% tariff on imported goods from China.
In overseas markets, Europe’s Stoxx 600 came within a whisker of printing an all-time intraday record, and was last marked 0.62% higher on the session, while Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.34% in London.
Overnight in Asia, SoftBank’s best gain since July, linked to its placement in the ‘Stargate’ AI venture, helped lift the Nikkei 225 1.58% higher into the close of trading in Tokyo.
Broader stocks in the region were also higher, with the MSCI ex-Japan index rising 0.13%, although stocks in China were muted by Trump’s tariff refence and the prospect of U.S. import levies put in place on Feb. 1.
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