“The needle has clearly moved in terms of what it will take to convince investors that the billions being poured into AI infrastructure will pay off,” said Raffi Boyadjian, chief market analyst at Trading Point.“Markets are now entering a phase where they want to see tangible results from AI monetization before pushing AI stocks above their recent range.”
Most mega-cap and growth stocks, including Apple and Microsoft, traded in the flat-to-lower band.
At 7:13 a.m. Dutch time, the Dow E-minis were down 6 points or 0.01%, the S&P 500 E-minis were down 0.75 points or 0.01% and the Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 12.75 points or 0.05%.
Salesforce fell 3.7% after the cloud software provider forecast below-expectations revenue for fiscal 2027, pointing to sluggish spending on enterprise software. The results of software-related companies could get extra attention this earnings season, as the S&P 500 software and services index is down nearly 21% so far this year as concerns about AI-related disruptions have hit the sector.
While software has been among the worst hit, financial brokerage, data analytics and legal services, real estate services and trucking are some other sectors that posted heavy losses amid growing fears of AI disruption earlier this year.
February was a choppy month for US stocks, with the major indexes swinging sharply between gains and losses, while sentiment toward AI and technology stocks wavered, with investors questioning whether the massive planned AI spending would actually pay off.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at two-week highs on Wednesday, fueled by a rally in heavyweight technology stocks.
A weekly analysis of unemployment benefits will follow later in the day, and January producer price figures are scheduled to be released on Friday.
Among other stocks, Trade Desk tumbled 16.8% after the ad tech company forecast first-quarter revenue below expectations, amid mounting pressure from bigger rivals.
C3.ai fell 24.8% after the software provider forecast current quarter revenue to be below expectations and said it would cut 26% of its global workforce.
Celsius Holding rose 14% after the energy drink maker reported fourth-quarter sales above expectations.
Investors also followed the latest round of talks between the US and Iran in Geneva, aimed at resolving their long-standing nuclear dispute and averting new US attacks on Iran following a large-scale military build-up.
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