Reuters reports that on Friday, U.S. stock index futures witnessed a significant rise. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures took the lead, fueled by an upbeat forecast from chipmaker Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO). This kept the enthusiasm around artificial intelligence alive. Broadcom's prediction of quarterly revenue exceeding Wall Street estimates on Thursday and its forecast of booming demand for its custom AI chips in the coming years led to a 14.5% increase in its shares during premarket trading. Dan Coatsworth, an investment analyst at AJ Bell, stated, "Clients have been extremely excited about how AI could enhance their earnings. This flurry of activity has also made Broadcom a focus for investors as an alternative to just Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) in playing the AI boom."Optimism Spreads to Other Chip Stocks
The positive sentiment extended to other chip stocks. Rival Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL) Technology rose by 5.7%, Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) gained 1.2%, and AI bellwether Nvidia edged up 1.1%. This comes after a continuous rally in technology stocks that propelled the Nasdaq above the 20,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday. An in-line inflation reading, which solidified a 25-basis-point cut from the Federal Reserve next week, added to the upward momentum. According to CME's FedWatch Tool, trader bets on the cut at the central bank's Dec. 17-18 meeting stand at over 96%, but there are indications of a potential pause in January. Paolo Zanghieri, a senior economist at Generali (BIT:GASI) Asset Management, said, "For 2025, we expect continued healthy growth and a very gradual easing of inflation. (Federal Open Market Committee) officials have suggested that current policy is now at a point where further reductions could occur more slowly."Early Morning Market Movements
At 7:00 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 85 points, or 0.19%. S&P 500 E-minis were up 19 points, or 0.31%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 138.5 points, or 0.64%. Wall Street had taken a breather in the previous session after recent gains and some hot economic data ahead of the Fed's meeting, resulting in weekly losses for the benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow. However, the Nasdaq was on track to end the week higher. The three main indexes have set multiple record highs this year as investors flocked to heavyweight tech stocks to capitalize on the AI hype.Other Mover Stocks
Among other notable movers, Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) was up 1.7% after KeyBanc upgraded the cloud software seller's stock to "overweight" from "sector weight". On the other hand, D.R. Horton eased 1% as J.P. Morgan downgraded its rating on the homebuilder to "underweight".
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