US stock futures mostily nudged higher on Thursday as investors waited for Amazon earnings and assessed fresh signals from Alphabet, following a sharp two-day sell-off in technology stocks.

S&P 500 futures (ES=F) moved up 0.1%, while those on the Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) rose 0.3%. Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F), which includes fewer tech names, hovered just below the flat line.

Wall Street is digesting another batch of corporate earnings, with Big Tech and AI prospects in high focus. Alphabet (GOOG) shares fell 1% in premarket after the Google parent outlined a significant ramp-up in AI investment in its quarterly results. The company projects a rise in spending to as high as $185 billion in 2026.

That outlook helped lift stocks of AI infrastructure-linked companies such as chipmakers Nvidia (NVDA), Broadcom (AVGO), amid renewed optimism around long-term demand tied to the data center buildout. But Qualcomm (QCOM) shares tumbled after the chipmaker issued a softer-than-expected forecast, citing headwinds from a global memory shortage.

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.

Software names bore the brunt of a decline Wednesday as Anthropic's new tools fed concerns about AI disruption to demand for traditional business software.

Crypto markets were also rattled following a comment from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said the government would not bail out bitcoin (BTC-USD) after a slump that has pushed the token to around $71,000 apiece.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) tumbled, falling $71,000 per token on Thursday after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested the US government would not bail out the cryptocurrency.

But the leading cryptocurrency was paring deeper overnight losses in the wake of Bessent's comments, after entering the key mid-$70,000 support region.

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Yahoo Finance's Ines Ferré and Grace O'Donnell report:

In a heated back-and-forth during a House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, Bessent was asked if the US Treasury had the authority to buy bitcoin or other cryptos.

\\"I do not have the authority to do that, and as chair of FSOC, I do not have that authority,\\" Bessent stated.

Bessent's comments pushed bitcoin lower on Wednesday, extending a slump from earlier in the session.

... The decline was also fueled by the broader selling pressure in markets and a warning from notable investor Michael Burry that a sustained decline in bitcoin's price could \\"set in motion a death spiral leading to massive value destruction.\\"

Read more here.

Snap (SNAP) stock galloped higher after a strong holiday quarter for advertising lifted earnings above Wall Street's estimates.

Snap stock rose 6% before the bell on Thursday.

For the fourth quarter, the video messaging app reported revenue of $1.71 billion and earnings per share of $0.03. That beat Wall Street estimates of $1.7 billion in revenue and a $0.03 loss per share, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Reuters reports:

The Snapchat-parent said total active advertisers on ‌the platform rose 28% in the fourth quarter, underscoring strength in direct response ads and growth in new ad ‌formats such as Sponsored Snaps and Promoted Places.

Revenue rose 10% from a year earlier to $1.72 billion in the quarter ended December ​31, exceeding analysts' average estimate of $1.70 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

It expects first-quarter ‌revenue to be between $1.50 billion and $1.53 billion, slightly below estimates of $1.55 billion.

Read more here.

E.l.f. Beauty (ELF) demonstrated resilience in the fourth quarter following a difficult 2025, with a strong earnings beat and guidance raise.

The affordable cosmetics manufacturer lifted its full-year 2026 sales outlook to a range of $1.6 billion to $1.61 billion from its previous range of $1.55 billion to $1.57 billion. The company also sees greater earnings per share of $3.05-$3.10, an increase from the previous range of $2.80-$2.85.

The stock soared by as much as 8% in premarket trading on Thursdayas the company looks to regain its footing after higher tariffs and other challenges led the stock to lose 40% in 2025. However, the stock pared some of those gains, perhaps due to lower gross margins amid ongoing tariff costs.

Last year, the company also acquired Hailey Bieber's Rhode brand.

In the fourth quarter, e.l.f. reported better-than-expected earnings per share of $0.65 versus $0.55 expected by Wall Street analysts. Net sales jumped 38% to $489.5 million, topping estimates of $461 million, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

\\"Our value proposition, powerhouse innovation and disruptive marketing engine continue to fuel our brands,\\" CEO Tarang Amin said in a statement. \\"We remain confident in our ability to grow market share and deliver best-in-class growth in beauty, as reflected by our raised fiscal 2026 outlook.\\"

Read more about e.l.f.'s quarter from Reuters.

Arm Holdings shares fall as licensing sales miss estimates.

From Reuters:

Shares of Arm Holdings fell on Wednesday as its licensing revenues slightly missed Wall Street ​estimates, despite a push by the company to boost the segment with ‌new chip technology offerings.

Shares were down 6% in premarket trading on Thursday after Arm reported results. It also forecast fourth-quarter revenue ‌above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, driven by demand for its energy-efficient chip designs used in artificial intelligence applications from data centers to smartphones.

For Arm's fiscal third quarter, licensing revenue, which includes upfront fees for access to its technology, stood at $505 ‍million, slightly below estimates of $519.9 million, according to FactSet. The results came even as Arm pushes customers to adopt the latest version of its chip technology, which comes with higher licensing costs.

The ​company projected revenue of $1.47 billion for the fourth quarter, compared with analysts' average ‌estimate of $1.44 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Read more here.

Broadcom stock rose 5% before the bell on Thursday following Alphabet's capital expenditure news, which surpassed analysts' expectations.

Google's parent company, Alphabet, forecast 2026 capital expenditures of $180 billion, news which helps Broadcom, which partners with Alphabet on custom chips.

“That is an incredible number. We are laughing because that number is so good for the Google cohort,” Reitzes told CNBC.

Google is not the only company increasing its capex spend to build AI data centers, Oracle is doing the same and raised its forecast to around $50 billion.

Google's AI software doesn't just use Nvidia chips, but it also uses its own tensor processing units (TPUs). For Gemini 3, Google used TPUs, which Broadcom helped to make.

Bloomberg reports:

Silver (SI=F) fell sharply, wiping out a two-day recovery, as the white metal struggled to find a floor following a historic market rout. Gold (GC=F) also declined.

Spot silver plunged as much as 17% on Thursday, having flickered briefly above $90 an ounce in early Asian trading. After a record-breaking rally that appeared to run too far, too fast, the metal has retreated by more than a third from an all-time high hit on Jan. 29.

“Sentiment seems to have turned soggy across most asset classes, including regional equities and metals,” said Christopher Wong, a strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. This has created “a feedback loop amid thin market liquidity,” he said.

The sudden and sharp decline in precious metals also weighed on sentiment in base metals markets, with copper falling more than 1% to slip below $13,000 a ton. Meanwhile, spot gold dropped as much as 3.5% in choppy trading.

Read more here.

Qualcomm (QCOM) stock fell around 11% in premarket trading on Thursday after the chip designer's results beat on the top and bottom lines but its forecast was lighter than expected. A memory chip shortage stemming from data center developers scooping up chips and chipmakers shifting production to cater to AI demand added pressure to the company's outlook.

In the fiscal first quarter, the company said revenue increased 5% year over year to $12.3 billion, while earnings per share rose to $2.78. Qualcomm beat analyst estimates on the top and bottom lines, with consensus estimates forecasting $12.1 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $2.75, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

However, the outlook for the fiscal second quarter dimmed as a supply crunch in memory chips weighs on margins and the smartphone market.

Second quarter revenue is expected in the range of $10.2 billion to $11 billion (analysts were looking for $11 billion at the midpoint). Adjusted diluted earnings per share are expected to be in the range of $2.45 to $2.65 (the Street was hoping for $2.87).

\\"While our near-term handsets outlook is impacted by industry-wide memory supply constraints, we are encouraged by end-consumer demand for premium and high tier smartphones, and remain on track to achieve our fiscal 2029 revenue goals,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said in the earnings release.

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.