Nike gains after Jefferies upgrades to ‘buy’
Berkshire Hathaway up after posting record Q4 profit
Domino’s Pizza falls after missing Q4 same-store sales estimates
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Futures up: Dow 0.59%, S&P 500 0.49%, Nasdaq 0.44%
(Updates to before markets open)
By Johann M Cherian and Sukriti Gupta
Feb 24 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes were set to open higher on Monday, after a sharp selloff in the previous week, while Apple dipped as the iPhone maker announced a $500 billion investment plan.
At 08:34 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 255 points, or 0.59%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 29.25 points, or 0.49%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 95 points, or 0.44%.
Futures tracking the small-cap Russell 200 index added 0.6%.
Most megacaps ticked higher in premarket trading, with Alphabet up 1.9% and Meta adding 0.6%, while Dow-listed financial stocks such as Goldman Sachs and Visa gained about 0.9% each.
Chip stocks such as Nvidia and Micron rose more than 1.6% each. Nvidia’s quarterly results are expected on Wednesday, putting semiconductor stocks in the spotlight for the week.
The artificial intelligence bellwether’s forecast is crucial to investor mood on Wall Street, after the launch of low-cost AI models from China’s DeepSeek in January rattled tech stocks and stoked doubts about U.S. dominance in the sector.
“(It will be) the company’s first earnings report since the January 27 DeepSeek-driven market selloff, when investors started to raise serious questions about artificial intelligence spending,” said Clark Bellin, president and chief investment officer at Bellwether Wealth in a note.
Apple slipped 0.8% after the iPhone maker unveiled planned investments to help bring online a factory in Texas by 2026 to build AI servers and add about 20,000 research and development jobs across the U.S.
“(Apple is) moving into servers and that has not been the area that they’ve succeeded in,” said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners.
Futures edged up after U.S. stock indexes registered weekly losses on Friday, as a batch of weak economic data and a disappointing forecast from Walmart sparked concerns that the world’s largest economy was stalling. The benchmark S&P 500 and a smallcaps index marked their worst daily declines of 2025.
On the data front, the Personal Consumption Expenditure index – the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge – is expected on Friday and could help markets gauge the timing of the central bank’s first rate cut this year.
Interest rate futures indicate the Fed will leave borrowing costs unchanged for the first half of the year, tante sange according to data compiled by LSEG.
Following Friday’s soft data, markets will also be keen on the Conference Board’s report on consumer sentiment and the second estimate on quarterly gross domestic product, due later in the week. Remarks from at least nine Fed policymakers will also be parsed.
Among others, Berkshire Hathaway’s Class B shares rose 1% after the Warren Buffett-owned conglomerate reported a record annual profit over the weekend.
Nike added 2.5% after Jefferies raised its rating on the athletic apparel maker to “buy” from “hold”, while Domino’s Pizza fell 4.8% after the pizza chain missed expectations for fourth-quarter same-store sales.
Markets are also on edge for any tariff comments from U.S. President Donald Trump, with his one-month reprieve on Mexican and Canadian tariffs nearing its end.
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian, Sukriti Gupta and in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Devika Syamnath)
