Stock futures were rebounding Thursday after President Donald Trump appeared to play down the chances of U.S. military intervention in Iran.
These stocks were poised to make moves:
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing jumped 6% in premarket trading. The Taiwanese chip manufacturer's fourth-quarter earnings beat analysts' expectations. TSMC also said that it expects to spend heavily to meet rising demand for artificial-intelligence processors, forecasting capital expenditures for this year of between $52 billion and $56 billion. That suggests confidence the AI chip surge is set to be a long-term phenomenon.
Shares in chip-manufacturing tool makers rallied following TSMC's report. Lam Research rose 7%, Applied Materials added 7%, and KLA-Tencor gained 6%, making them the S&P 500's three biggest winners ahead of the opening bell.
Goldman Sachs slipped 0.5% and Morgan Stanley climbed 1%, with both investment banks set to report their fourth-quarter earnings Thursday. Asset manager BlackRock dropped 1.4% ahead of the release of its earnings report.
Oil stocks fell after Trump downplayed the chances of a strike on Iran, dragging down crude prices. Chevron fell 0.7% and Exxon dropped 0.9%.