US stock futures mostly lower; Nvidia guidance underwhelms

Investing.com -- US stock index futures mostly fell Thursday, weighed by disappointing guidance from artificial intelligence major Nvidia as well as increased tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

At 06:15 ET (11:15 GMT), Dow Jones Futures rose 10 points, or 0.1%, while S&P 500 Futures slipped 7 points, or 0.1%, and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 35 points, or 0.2%. 

Nvidia falls as guidance underwhelms 

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares fell more than 3% premarket, as although the tech giant beat expectations in the third quarter, with revenue of $35.1 billion, its fourth-quarter revenue forecast of $37.5 billion underwhelmed some traders hoping for a much bigger beat, especially given the stellar run-up in Nvidia’s valuation this year. 

The revenue forecast presented a sharp slowdown in Nvidia’s quarterly revenue growth, given that the company guided much stronger year-on-year increases in revenue for the past three quarters.

Nvidia, which recently overtook Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) to become the world’s most valuable listed company, also flagged supply constraints, especially in its upcoming Blackwell line of next-generation AI chips, while adding that demand for its advanced AI chips remained robust. 

Starbucks looking at China options - report

In other corporate news, Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) is likely to be in the spotlight after Bloomberg reported the coffee chain is considering options for its China business, including a potential stake sale, as it attempts to revitalize sales under new CEO Brian Niccol.

Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) stock soared over 20% premarket after the data analytics software maker reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that beat estimates.

Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) stock fell almost 3% after the Chinese tech giant posted an annual drop in third-quarter revenue.

More economic cues awaited

The market focus was now on a swathe of U.S. economic readings due in the coming days, with weekly jobless claims and home sales data due later in the session, ahead of purchasing managers index data for November on Friday. 

Several Federal Reserve officials are also set to speak in the coming days. 

Crude prices rise

Crude prices rose Thursday, buoyed by fears of supply disruptions stemming from worsening tensions in the Russia-Ukraine war, countering the impact from a bigger-than-expected increase in US inventories.

By 06:15 ET, the US crude futures (WTI) climbed 1.7% to $69.91 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 1.3% to $73.94 a barrel.

Crude prices have advanced this week as the use of long-range US and UK weapons by Ukraine against Russia, something Moscow had warned for months would be seen as a major escalation.  

Still, overall gains were limited by concerns over slowing demand, especially as U.S. inventories grew more than expected, rising by 545,000 barrels to 430.3 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 15.

More worrying for oil markets was a nearly 2.1 mb build in gasoline inventories, which spurred some concerns that US fuel demand was cooling as the winter season approached.

(Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)