U.S. stock futures inch higher as investors anxiously await Nvidia earnings

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U.S. stock futures inch higher as investors anxiously await Nvidia earnings.

stock :: 2025-11-17 :: source - marketwatch

By Mike Murphy

Investors are awaiting Nvidia earnings this week. - Getty Images

U.S. stock futures edged higher on Sunday, following a choppy week on Wall Street.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YM00 were recently up 25 points, or 0.1%, while S&P 500 futures ES00 rose 0.4% and Nasdaq-100 futures NQ00 gained 0.6%. Bitcoin BTCUSD briefly dropped near the $93,000 level, continuing its recent slump that has wiped out nearly all of its yearly gains. West Texas crude futures CL.1 declined about 1%, while gold futures GC00 slipped as well. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY advanced modestly.

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On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA and S&P 500 SPX declined, but the Nasdaq COMP gained as tech stocks rebounded after a Thursday selloff. For the week, the Dow gained 0.3%, the S&P 500 inched 0.1% higher but the Nasdaq slipped 0.5%. It was the Nasdaq’s second losing week in a row, for the index’s largest two-week percentage decline since the stretch ending April 4, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

This week, investors will be focused on quarterly earnings for Nvidia Corp. NVDA on Wednesday. The chipmaker is seen as a bellwether for the AI trade, and a positive report could help revive the rally in AI stocks, amid growing concerns that the sector is overvalued. But if it disappoints, the slide in tech stocks could speed up.

“This isn’t just an earnings print, it’s an industry-wide truth serum,” Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said in a weekend note.

Big retailers like Walmart Inc. WMT and Home Depot Inc. HD will also post results, offering more insight into the state of consumer spending.

More: Stocks are caught up in a powerful rotation. Here’s what could deliver a shock.

Wall Street is also awaiting long-delayed government economic data now that the federal shutdown is over. The September jobs report is due Thursday, though other reports, such as the October consumer-price index, are still up in the air.

Analysts are split as to how investors will react to the delayed reports, or if they’ll put more focus on more timely reports coming in early December.

David Russell, global head of market strategy at online brokerage firm TradeNation, told MarketWatch’s Vivien Lou Chen that positive numbers are already priced into the market, and the reports “will likely be viewed negatively regardless, because people will say we still have a weak economy, slow labor market and inflation that’s above target.”

After cutting interest rates earlier this month, Federal Reserve officials have recently been more cautious about another cut in December, as they await delayed inflation data. The probability of a cut is now below 50%, according to the CME FedWatch tool, down from 94% odds about a month ago.

“The week ahead is really about the market trying to price the void: the absence of data, the uncertainty around the Fed reaction function, the re-emergence of volatility as macro fuel pours back into the system,” SPI’s Innes wrote in a weekend note. “When the fog lifts, the economy could look sturdier… or weaker… or simply different enough that the Fed regrets not tightening or easing sooner.”