Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange on May 7, 2026.
NYSE
S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures rose Wednesday, led by gains in chipmaker names, while traders looked ahead to the release of another major inflation report.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 were up 0.2%, while Nasdaq-100 futures popped 0.8%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures shed 115 points, or 0.2%.
Nvidia shares traded higher by more than 2% in the premarket. AMD also climbed 2% while Micron gained nearly 6%. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) advanced 2.2%.
The move comes after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang joined President Donald Trump on his trip to China to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“His last-minute addition to Trump’s China trip has reignited investor interest in tech stocks following the Tues slump amid hope for an H200 breakthrough,” wrote Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge. “That the CEO of the world’s largest company is accompanying the president of his country on a critical geopolitical trip shouldn’t be surprising to anyone, and it’s hardly a reason to dive back into chip stocks, but that sector hasn’t exactly been behaving in a rational fashion of late.”
Semiconductor stocks have been on a tear of late, leading the broader market back to record highs, amid renewed enthusiasm in the artificial intelligence trade.
To be sure, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slipped from all-time highs on Tuesday following the release of hotter-than-expected U.S. consumer inflation data.
Traders will look forward to the release of another inflation report on Wednesday morning — April’s producer price index. Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting a headline increase of 0.5% on the month, in line with March’s rate. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, this number is expected to come in at a 0.4% rise.
Even as tech took a breather on Tuesday, the artificial intelligence trade has overall still been the market’s dominant driver this year. Olaolu Aganga, head of portfolio construction at Citi Wealth, believes that AI spend expanding outside of the tech sector leaves room for investors to buy into other opportunities in the market.
“We have global views that we think are lasting and enduring, so energy security and infrastructure — those companies that can benefit from the capex spending with regards to energy and the grid and energy independence,” she said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Tuesday afternoon. “So if you’ve missed this particular wave, there are some themes that we believe will be playing out over time, frankly, that we need to focus on, that we think we have durable earnings there as well.”