By Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta
(Reuters) -Wall Street’s main indexes were set for a lower open on Wednesday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq on track to lead losses following disappointing forecasts from Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and AMD in a busy day for corporate earnings.
Google-parent Alphabet dropped 7.8% in premarket trading after posting downbeat cloud revenue growth and earmarking a higher-than-expected $75 billion for its AI buildout this year, fanning concerns about its hefty investments into the technology.
"While some investors may have hoped that Silicon Valley would exercise caution in the wake of China’s AI innovations, the opposite is occurring," Jochen Stanzl, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said in a mailed statement.
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) lost 9.7% after CEO Lisa Su said the company’s current-quarter data center sales - a proxy for its AI revenue - would fall about 7% from the previous quarter.
"The guidance from many of the big major corporations has been disappointing and it threatens the expectations of earnings growth for this year," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth Management.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shed 2.1% after Bloomberg News reported that China’s antitrust regulator was preparing for a possible investigation of the iPhone maker.
At 08:32 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 69 points, or 0.15%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 19.5 points, or 0.32%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 137 points, or 0.63%.
Data on Wednesday showed private payrolls rose by 183,000 jobs last month, compared with an estimated 150,000 increase, as per economists polled by Reuters.
A survey on U.S. services activity for the month is due shortly after markets open, while the all-important January nonfarm payrolls report is expected to be released on Friday.
Markets also looked for developments on the tariffs front.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was in no hurry to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping to try to defuse a new trade war between the countries.
Morgan Stanley joined Barclays (LON:BARC) and Macquarie in forecasting a single 25-basis-point interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve this year, citing uncertainty from Trump’s tariff policy.
Richmond Fed president Thomas Barkin said the Fed was still leaning towards more rate cuts this year, but flagged uncertainty around the impact of new tariffs, immigration, regulatory and other Trump administration initiatives.
Among top movers, FMC Corp (NYSE:FMC) plunged 25% after the agrichemicals producer forecast first-quarter revenue below estimates.
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) slid 5.9% as the burrito maker forecast tepid annual comparable sales growth and said the company would take a roughly 60-basis-point impact on its raw material costs this year if Trump’s proposed tariffs against Mexico go into full effect.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese e-commerce firm PDD Holdings (NASDAQ:PDD) dropped 3.2% after a report that the U.S. was considering whether to add PDD’s Temu to Homeland Security’s "forced labor" list.
Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) dropped 5.5% after the ride-hailing company forecast current-quarter bookings below estimates and reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit.