US stock futures stalled on Thursday as Nvidia's (NVDA) stellar earnings failed to enthuse markets, as Wall Street juggles growing worries over AI's potential for payoff and disruption.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) slipped just below the flatline, 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) were also little changed.

Nvidia shares jumped following its after-hours report Wednesday, but pared gains amid a lukewarm response from investors. The AI chipmaker posted big beats on quarterly revenue and profit, and its guidance also came in above expectations. But a lack of detail on drivers for the outlook — which doesn't include potential revenue out of China — left some on Wall Street asking questions about competitive threats and the staying power of AI buildout demand.

Fears of a AI bubble and the "AI scare trade" have buffeted stocks in recent weeks, with the technology's challenge to sectors such as legacy software coming to the fore. Salesforce (CRM) shares fell about 4% to continue an AI-driven sell-off after its revenue forecast fell short of estimates.

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.

From Reuters:

Nvidia (NVDA) may have made its immense fortune on the back of specialized graphics processing units (GPUs) used to power artificial intelligence servers, but CEO Jensen Huang is increasingly professing his love for the more generalist CPU.

The CPU, or central processing unit, was for ‌decades traditionally viewed as the main brain of a computer — a product most associated with Intel (INTC) or sometimes Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Huang is fond of saying ‌that where once 90% of computing used to happen on CPUs and 10% on chips like his, the ratio had flipped in recent years.

But the CPU is now making a comeback - increasingly seen as an equivalent ​if not better option as AI companies shift from training their models to deploying them - a shift that Nvidia plans to be a big part of.

\\"We love CPUs as well as GPUs,\\" Huang said on a call with analysts on Wednesday for the company's fourth-quarter results.

He assured them that Nvidia was not only ready for the CPU's return to the spotlight, but also that Nvidia's own CPU offerings for data centers, first released in 2023, would outcompete rivals.

Read more here.

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