Wall St set for higher open after Micron's upbeat forecast; all eyes on Powell

By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal

(Reuters) -Wall Street's main indexes were set to open higher on Thursday as Micron's upbeat forecast revived the frenzy around artificial intelligence, while investors assessed a labor market report and awaited comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Micron Technology jumped 17% in premarket trading after the memory chip maker forecast higher-than-expected first-quarter revenue, underscoring that demand for memory chips used in AI computing was robust.

The optimism lifted other chip stocks, with Nvidia rising 2.4%, Advanced Micro Devices advancing 2.7% and Broadcom adding 1.9%.

"Optimism surrounding AI had taken a bit of a backseat in recent weeks. The strong revenue guidance from Micron has revived the AI trade a little bit, reminding the market that AI is still relevant," said Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index.

Investors also scrutinized a Labor Department report that showed jobless claims came in at 218,000 for the week ended Sept. 21, below estimates of 225,000.

"Better employment numbers mean that the Fed will only cut by 25 bps at the next meeting ... on the one hand we won't get a bigger rate cut, but on the other hand, it indicates the economy is strong, which is good news," said Melissa Brown, managing director of investment decision research at SimCorp.

Separately, the final reading of gross domestic product (GDP) confirmed that the economy grew 3% in the second quarter.

Traders now expect the Fed to deliver another outsized cut in November with a 58.2% chance, up from 38.8% a week ago, as per the CME Group's FedWatch Tool.

Dow E-minis were up 208 points, or 0.49%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 47.75 points, or 0.83% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 312 points, or 1.55%.

Futures tracking the Russell 2000 small caps index added 1%.

The benchmark S&P 500 and blue-chip Dow have hit multiple record highs since the start of this year and the tech-laden Nasdaq is about 3% away from its own milestone. Optimism around AI and expectations of lower interest rates have led markets to rally this year.

Late on Wednesday, Fed Governor Adriana Kugler said she "strongly supported" the central bank's decision to kick off monetary policy easing with a rare half a percentage point cut last week, as part of an emerging focus on the job market.

The spotlight will now be on Powell's remarks at a New York conference expected before the market opens for clues on the health of the economy and the outlook for interest rate cuts.

A host of Fed officials, including John Williams, Michael Barr, Michelle Bowman and Neel Kashkari are also scheduled to speak later in the day.

Among others, Meta rose 1.6%, a day after unveiling an entry-level version of its Quest line of mixed-reality headsets. Alphabet added 1.2%, Tesla climbed 1.7% and Microsoft was up 0.6%.

Copper miners such as Freeport-McMoRan rose 5.6%, while lithium miners such as Albemarle climbed 4.4% and Arcadium added 3.5% after a report said China plans to issue special sovereign bonds worth about 2 trillion yuan as part of a fresh fiscal stimulus.

Southwest Airlines climbed 6.5% after the carrier raised its third-quarter revenue forecast, while Accenture gained 5.3% after the IT services provider forecast annual revenue above estimates.

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Maju Samuel)