US stock futures stalled on Wednesday as investors bided their time ahead of chipmaker Nvidia's ( NVDA ) earnings report, seen as crucial to keeping confidence in the broader market aloft.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures ( YM=F ) futures were little changed after the blue-chip benchmark managed to eke out a second record close in a row. Futures on the S&P 500 ( ES=F ) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 ( NQ=F ) also traded broadly flat.
Stocks are caught in cautious trade ahead of Nvidia's second quarter results after the bell on Wednesday. The $3.2 trillion AI juggernaut's report will serve as a litmus test for AI spending and the tech sector, and could end up moving the market as a whole.
Traders are expecting a swing of almost 10% in the chipmaker's shares in either direction, depending on whether hopes for another blowout quarter are met. Wall Street forecasts Nvidia earnings grew by roughly 109% and revenue by 99%, year-on-year. Updates on any potential delays for Nvidia's new Blackwell chip will be in particular focus.
Nvidia's stock is up about 160% this year so far. Shares were little changed in Wednesday's premarket, after a wobbly start to the week.
Elsewhere in techs, Apple ( AAPL ) made the rare move of cutting 100 jobs in its digital services group, a day after the iPhone maker announced it was replacing its long-standing CFO .
While Nvidia is the star of the earnings docket, eyes are on Salesforce ( CRM ) results to shed light on whether software companies are starting to see a return on their AI investments. Meanwhile. CrowdStrike's ( CRWD ) report should give insight to the cost of the fallout from the global Windows outage in July.