US stock futures edged higher early Thursday as investors digested another batch of corporate earnings and assessed fresh signals from Alphabet, following a sharp sell-off that hit technology stocks earlier in the day.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) slipped 0.1% while futures tied to the S&P 500 (ES=F) hovered around the flatline. Nasdaq 100 futures (NQ=F) rose roughly 0.2%.

Alphabet (GOOG) shares slipped more than 1% in late trading after the company reported results and outlined a significant ramp-up in artificial intelligence investment. The Google parent said it expects expenditure to climb, projecting spending as high as $185 billion in 2026. But that outlook helped lift shares of tech names such as Nvidia (NVDA) and Broadcom (AVGO), as investors renewed optimism around long-term demand tied to AI infrastructure.

Elsewhere, Qualcomm (QCOM) shares tumbled nearly 9% after the chipmaker issued a softer-than-expected forecast, citing headwinds from a global memory shortage.

Software names bore the brunt of a decline Wednesday as Anthropic AI tools led to fears of disruption in traditional business models. Crypto markets were also rattled following a comment from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said the government would not bail out bitcoin (BTC-USD) amid an over 13% drop over the past five days that has pushed the token to around $73,000.

Looking ahead, earnings remain in focus, with Amazon (AMZN) taking focus Thursday. Investors will also be watching weekly jobless claims data due in the morning for fresh clues on the health of the labor market.

Reuters reports:

PC makers HP (HPQ), Dell (DELL), Acer (2353.TW) and Asus (7801.TWO) are considering sourcing memory chips from Chinese ​chipmakers for the first time amid a global ‌supply crunch that is threatening product launches and pushing up costs across ‌the tech industry, Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. HP, Dell, Acer and Asus did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

This comes at ⁠a time when global ‌electronics supply chains are grappling with an acute shortage of memory chips - an essential fixture ‍across devices from smartphones to data centers.

HP has started qualifying products from Chinese memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) to expand supply alternatives, ​Nikkei Asia said citing people familiar with the matter.

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

Gold (GC=F) rose, pushing back above $5,000 an ounce, as dip buyers continued to snap up bullion after a historic plunge from an all-time high.

Spot gold climbed as much as 1.2% in early trading, having clawed back some losses over the previous two sessions following an abrupt collapse. At Wednesday’s close, the metal was down 11% from an all-time high hit on Jan. 29 but was still up 15% for the year. Silver also advanced, crossing $90 an ounce.

Precious metals soared last month in a rally underpinned by speculative momentum, geopolitical upheaval and concerns about the Federal Reserve’s independence. The surge came to a sudden halt at the end of last week, with silver seeing its biggest ever daily drop on Friday and gold plunging the most since 2013.

Read more here.