Dow futures trade flat, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures tank amid Nvidia's leadership concerns; Micron Tech, Intel, in focus

US equity futures indicate a mixed open on Thursday, November 12, with the Dow Jones potentially flat while the benchmark S&P 500 and Nasdaq are likely to witness selling pressure from investors amid the latest concerns surrounding the leadership of the world’s largest chipmaking company, Nvidia.

Dow Jones futures were trading 0.11% higher at 52,635 points ahead of the opening bell on Thursday, as investors focused on the potential for positive performance of the index, with buying sentiment among the value stocks.

In contrast, the S&P 500 futures were trading 0.43% lower at 7,608 points ahead of the US market open, while the Nasdaq 100 futures tanked 1% to trade around 28,192 points ahead of the opening bell.

The tech-heavy index futures were trading lower due to investors' concerns over the chipmaking major Nvidia’s leadership amid reports of the company’s board of directors allegedly planning to remove CEO Jensen Huang following the recent alleged involvement with an employee.

Stocks like Nvidia, Micron Tech, Intel, SanDisk, CoreWeave, among others, plummeted during the pre-market hours on Wall Street and are expected to be in focus of investors on Thursday’s market.

Other stocks like Cisco Systems, Applied Materials, Brookfield Corp., Nebius Group, among several others are in focus of investors on November 12 as the companies will announced their September quarter results.

Asian markets end in red

The equity market indices reversed their early market gains to end lower after the trading session on Thursday, November 12, as investors focused on the sharp selling pressure in tech and AI chipmaking stocks amid concerns about the leadership at Nvidia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.70% lower, Hang Seng ended 1.26% lower, Shanghai Composite closed 0.67% lower, South Korea’s KOSPI ended 0.61% lower, and Singapore’s FTSE ended 0.13% lower after Thursday’s trading session.

The only exception was the Indian equity market indices, which ended with flat gains after a range-bound session following buying interest in the banking and financial services stocks.

Crude oil trades around $92/bbl

Global crude oil prices were trading steady around $92 per barrel (bbl) during the trading session on Thursday, as investors focused on the United States keeping a pause on their escalations in West Asia.

Investing.com data showed that the Brent crude oil (January futures) was trading 0.77% lower at $92.07 per bbl as of 6:23 am (IST), in comparison to $92.76 per bbl at the previous equity market close.

The latest report showed that two oil tankers were disabled by explosions at the Strait of Hormuz, while the Houthis launched two ballistic missiles against Saudi Arabia, which were intercepted by the country’s air defence systems in the Mecca region.

The United States is maintaining its stance of “no need for major combat operations” in Iran, as the country’s economic pressure campaign was reportedly working well for the peace deal negotiations.

How did US markets end on Wednesday?

The US equity market indices ended higher on Wednesday, November 11, as investors shrugged off inflation concerns while carrying out value buying in AI and tech sector stocks after the latest corrections in the market.

MarketWatch data showed that the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.49% higher at 52,486.49 points after the trading session on Wednesday, in comparison to 52,231.89 points at the previous equity market close.

The S&P 500 index closed 1.31% higher at 7,619.38 points after the market session on November 11, compared to 7,520.93 points at the previous US equity market close.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index also rallied to end 2.28% higher at 28,374.25 points as of Wednesday’s trading session, in comparison to 27,740.80 points at the previous Wall Street close, as per the exchange data.