US stock futures stalled on Thursday as investors assessed earnings from chip heavyweight Nvidia (NVDA), looking for a steer on the next leg of the AI trade.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) fell 0.1%, following solid wins for stocks more broadly on Wednesday. Contracts on the S&P 500 (ES=F) and the tech-exposed Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) hovered just below the flatline.

Nvidia (NVDA) shares jumped on the heels of a big earnings beat before paring gains to about 1% in premarket. The semiconductor giant topped Wall Street expectations for quarterly profit and revenue, soothing some fears around the "AI scare trade" that has gripped markets. By contrast, Salesforce (CRM) shares fell roughly 4%, continuing an AI-driven sell-off that's seen the stock drop 28% year-to-date.

Looking ahead on the economic calendar, investors will parse weekly jobless claims data due Thursday, followed by January’s producer price index report on Friday.

Wall Street also continues to see earnings come through, with full-year results from Big Three automaker Stellantis (STLA, STLAM.MI) expected before the bell. Quarterly reports from Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), Dell Technologies (DELL) and CoreWeave (CRWV) are also slated for Thursday.

Marriott Vacations' (VAC) stock rose 8% before the bell on Thursday after reporting fourth quarter earnings, with revenue exceeding analyst expectations.

Trade Desk (TTD) stock sank 16% during premarket hours today. The technology platform reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.59 per share, beating estimates and also reported a rise in revenue. But it forecast first quarter revenue of $678 million, which fell below analyst expectations.

Zoom (ZM) stock fell 3% before the bell on Thursday after forecasting quarterly profit below Wall Street estimates on Wednesday.

Shares of Salesforce (CRM) fell almost 4% in premarket trading after the software company's fiscal 2027 revenue forecast came in below Wall Street expectations on Wednesday.

The San Francisco-based company flagged sluggish spending on enterprise business software ‌as it invests heavily in its AI platform to ​drive up demand.

Reuters reports:

[Salesforce] expects annual revenue in the ‌range of $45.80 billion ⁠to $46.20 billion, with the midpoint coming in slightly below an estimate of $46.06 billion, ⁠according to data compiled by LSEG.

... The forecast shows that ⁠demand for business software has remained under pressure from global economic uncertainty as companies pare back tech budgets, ⁠choosing to focus on essential spending and cost-cutting.

As Salesforce pours billions into machine learning, investors are worried that the development of new technology from ​startups ​could disrupt traditional software operations.

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

A 20% slide in Baidu Inc.'s (BIDU) shares over the past month serves as a crucial reminder for companies in China’s rapidly intensifying artificial intelligence race: investors are demanding tangible results.

The search engine specialist kicks off December-quarter earnings for China’s Big Tech on Thursday, amid growing concern that its AI investments are not translating into a meaningful growth driver quickly enough. Despite strength in the cloud business, analysts predict both revenue and profit to fall year on year, hurt by continued weakness in the core advertising business that’s closely tied to the broader economy.

With markets fixated on AI, positive management commentary or evidence that capital spending is bearing fruit will be crucial to help stem an equity rout that’s eroded $11 billion in market value since a three-year high on Jan. 23.

Read more here.

Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley reports:

Nvidia (NVDA) reported its fiscal fourth quarter results after the bell on Wednesday, beating analysts' expectations on the top and bottom lines.

The company also provided Q1 guidance of $76.44 billion to $79.56 billion, above Wall Street's estimate of $72.8 billion. Nvidia shares were up more than 2% in after-hours trade.

For the quarter, Nvidia saw earnings per share of $1.62 on revenue of $68.1 billion. Wall Street was anticipating EPS of $1.53 on revenue of $65.8 billion, according to Bloomberg analyst consensus estimates. The company reported EPS of $0.89 and revenue of $39.3 billion in the same quarter last year.

Nvidia's data center drove the vast majority of that growth, bringing in $62.3 billion for the period. That's better than analysts' projections of $60.2 billion.

Read more here