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Nasdaq futures lead Dow, S&P 500 higher as TSMC’s strong outlook buoys AI hopes


US stock futures climbed on Thursday, signaling a recovery from back-to-back losses as chip linchpin TSMC’s strong outlook boosted AI hopes in the wait for more big bank earnings.

Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) rose 0.8% to lead the way higher, with those on the S&P 500 (ES=F) up roughly 0.4%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) added 0.1% following a second straight day of losses for the Wall Street indexes.

TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, posted a 35% jump in fourth quarter profit on Thursday thanks to the AI boom. The major supplier to Nvidia (NVDA) and Apple (AAPL) said it plans to ramp up investment to $56 billion in 2026, a sign of confidence in sustained Big Tech spending on AI buildouts. Shares in the Taiwanese company jumped, stoking a rally in chip-related stocks such as ASML (ASML).

The mood marks a reversal after tech led stocks lower on Wednesday, which dragged on indexes and promised to revive a weeks-long rotation out of megacaps into value names.

In another boost to the market, oil prices sank amid signs the US is backing away from a military response in Iran. President Trump said Wednesday he had been told authorities there will stop killing protesters.

Silver (SI=F) prices also fell, putting the brakes on an explosive record-setting rally that pushed the metal’s total market value above $5 trillion for the first time. The retreat came after Trump said the US will hold off from putting import tariffs on critical minerals, a risk that contributed to a buildup in US inventories and supply squeeze that boosted silver prices.

Looking ahead, investors are watching for a fresh batch of earnings, with results from big banks Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), and BlackRock (BLK) due before the bell. On the economic front, an update on weekly jobless claims is on the docket.

LIVE 7 updates

  • Jenny McCall

    BlackRock total assets hit record $14T as ETFs surge

    BlackRock (BLK) stock edged higher by almost 2% on Thursday during premarket trading, after the asset manager pulled in $342 billion of total client cash in Q4. This has now pushed the company to a record $14 trillion of assets.

    Bloomberg News reports:

    Read more here.

  • Stock Market’s calm belies extreme swings in individual shares

    Bloomberg reports:

    The sense of calm that has pervaded the US stock market for months is masking unprecedented bursts of volatility in individual shares, say Barclays Plc strategists.

    Last year was a case in point, when some of the biggest components in the S&P 500 (^GSPC) Index saw abnormal swings as the gauge registered an AI-led, 16% rally. Between the 100 largest index members, there were 47 instances of sharp selloffs — specifically, a drop of five standard deviations or more, a move so rare it’s often considered an anomaly, according to Barclays. That’s the most in the bank’s data going back to 1998.

    More of the same is probably ahead this year, Barclays says, in a call that underscores in part how dependent the benchmark gauge has become on the trajectory of shares related to the artificial-intelligence theme. But according to Barclays, it also shows how AI itself has sped up how traders process market-moving events.

    “Single stocks have become where the center of gravity of volatility is,” Stefano Pascale, head of US equity derivatives research at Barclays, said in a phone interview. That environment has created a “lottery-ticket mentality” among retail traders, he said.

    Read more here.

  • Jenny McCall

    Premarket trending tickers Applied Materials, Spotify, and Entegris

    Applied Materials’ (AMAT) stock rose 8% before the bell on Thursday after receiving an OutPerform rating and $385 price target from analysts at RBC Capital.

    Spotify (SPOT) stock edged higher by 2% on Thursday during premarket hours after announcing it would ‌raise the price of ‌its monthly premium subscription service by $1 to $12.99 for existing ⁠subscribers ‌in the United States, Estonia ‍and Latvia markets.

    Entegris Inc. (ENTG) stock rose 7% before the bell today after announcing on Wednesday that its board of directors had authorized a quarterly cash dividend of $0.10 per share to be paid on February 18, 2026 to shareholders.

  • ASM’s market cap soars above $500 billion on TSMC’s upbeat outlook

    ASML (ASML, ASML.AS) shares soared over 7% to a record high in Amsterdam, sending its market value beyond $500 billion, after its key customer TSMC gave a stronger-than-anticipated outlook for 2026.

    Meanwhile, the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker’s US-listed stock also popped after the Taiwanese contract chipmaking giant’s strong Q4 earnings, up over 4% in premarket.

    Bloomberg reports:

    Read more here.

  • TSMC to ramp up spending as profit jumps 35% on AI boost

    Shares of TSMC (TSM, 2330.TW) rose early Thursday after the world’s biggest contract chipmaker posted a forecast-smashing 35% jump in fourth quarter profit thanks to the AI boom.

    The company also predicted robust growth in 2026 and said it plans to increase investment, hinting that more US factories are in the works.

    Riding high on what it calls the “AI mega trend”, TSMC said its customers were “providing strong signals” ‌and reaching out directly to request capacity, per Reuters.

    AP reported:

    Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., a major supplier to companies including Nvidia and Apple, reported a net profit of 506 billion new Taiwan dollars ($16 billion) for the October-December quarter, a 35% surge from a year earlier, better than analysts’ estimates.

    TSMC said Thursday that its revenue in the last quarter increased 21% from a year earlier to more than 1.046 trillion new Taiwan dollars ($33 billion).

    TSMC said it plans to boost its capital expenditure budget to $52 billion-$56 billion for 2026, up from about $40 billion last year. The company’s shares have climbed more than 8% since the beginning of the year, reflecting its strong position in the AI-driven market.

    … “We expect our business to be supported by continuous strong demand for our leading edge process technologies,” Wendell Huang, TSMC’s chief financial officer, said in a conference call. He said spending would be “significantly higher” in the next three years.

    Read more here.

  • Microsoft to set record with soil credit purchase to offset data centers

    Reuters reports:

    Read more here.

  • Oil prices drop after Trump indicates the US will not intervene in Iran’s attack on civilians

    Bloomberg reports:

    Oil fell for the first time in six days after US President Donald Trump signaled he may hold off on attacking Iran for now.

    Brent (BZ=F) dropped as much as 2.9% to trade below $65 a barrel after gaining about 11% over the past week while West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) was near $60. Trump said he’d been assured that Iran would stop killing protesters, reducing the likelihood of an immediate US military response to the demonstrations against the government of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and of disruptions to Iranian production and key shipping lanes.

    Elsewhere, US government data showed nationwide crude stockpiles rose 3.4 million barrels last week — the largest build since early November. The rising inventories, more Venezuelan oil heading to the US, plus a disruption at a key terminal in the Black Sea has pushed WTI to near the deepest discount in 15 months relative to Brent.

    Read more here.



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