By Tharuniyaa Lakshmi and Ragini Mathur
Oct 20 (Reuters) – Nasdaq 100 futures slipped on Tuesday, pressured by renewed weakness in AI-linked stocks and a rebound in oil prices, as investors braced for major corporate earning reports.
CoreWeave dropped 4.7% and Nebius Group lost 4.9% in premarket trading, while Apple fell 1.2% and Nvidia slipped marginally.
The pullback followed a brief rebound on Monday, when the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes advanced as investors bought the dip in technology stocks following last week’s sharp selloff, driven in part by concerns over CoreWeave’s debt load and the cost of financing the AI buildout.
“I see this as a dip inside a selective market rather than a genuine AI buying opportunity or the start of a deeper repricing,” said Ion Jauregui, analyst at ActivTrades. “Investors are pickier about AI stories than they were a year ago.”
Elsewhere, shares of South Korean AI infrastructure company Elice Group tumbled nearly 30% in their market debut, slipping below their IPO price after the company raised 201.1 billion won ($151.12 million) in its offering.
At 07:06 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 31 points, or 0.06%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 15.5 points, or 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 183.75 points, or 0.62%.
Brent crude was near a five-month high, as traders priced in a geopolitical risk premium from Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure and reports of vessel attacks in the Gulf. [O/R]
Investors will now watch this week’s corporate earnings for clues on whether companies can maintain strong growth in the face of mounting macroeconomic risks.
Quarterly results from SpaceX and Netflix are due after the market close on Tuesday, while heavyweights Meta Platforms and Tesla are scheduled to report on Wednesday.
Steel Dynamics fell 5.7% after the steelmaker missed third-quarter profit estimates.
General Motors beat expectations for third-quarter results, yet its shares dropped 5.2%.
Halliburton jumped 5.7% after the oilfield services provider topped Wall Street expectations for quarterly profit.
3M shares were up 0.5% after the industrial conglomerate said it was expanding its commercial relationship with Amazon and had issued a warrant to an Amazon subsidiary, allowing it the right to buy 3M common stock worth over $521 million. The company also raised its full-year profit forecast on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Tharuniyaa Lakshmi and Ragini Mathur in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
