Nasdaq futures slid more than 1% on Thursday as investors weighed the possibility that rising interest rates could constrain capital flowing into artificial-intelligence ventures, extending a broader retreat across AI-linked equities. Inflation data landing above analyst expectations on Wednesday pushed market participants to anticipate further Federal Reserve rate increases, a repricing that sent technology shares lower and left both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 posting their worst one-day drops since July.

TSMC, whose fabs produce the most advanced chips in commercial circulation, posted a sixth straight quarter of record earnings yet tempered its outlook for 2027, pointing to broader economic headwinds as the basis for that restrained view. Even a reported 45% quarter-on-quarter revenue jump at AI company Anthropic did little to restore confidence among investors.

Shares in CoreWeave slipped a further 6.3% in premarket trading, extending a 15% retreat the stock recorded the previous session, as the data-centre company continues to carry a substantial debt load. Oracle's share price slid a further 2.1%, extending a run of losses that had already wiped nearly 9% off its value in the trading session before. Debt instruments tied to those firms faced mounting strain, with yields climbing to levels not previously recorded.

Shares in CoreWeave, Oracle, and a range of chipmakers, hyperscalers, and cloud providers appeared on track to extend the previous session's losses into a second consecutive trading day. Shares in Nvidia slipped 1.8%, with Micron Technology and Advanced Micro Devices posting steeper retreats of 3.7% and 2.3% in turn. Jefferies economist Mohit Kumar cautioned that any pullback in AI infrastructure spending would weigh on US growth projections, while separately indicating that the firm anticipated the upcoming earnings season to demonstrate continued strength in demand, and that Jefferies planned to reduce some of its chip-sector exposure in the period before the midterm election.

Dow E-mini futures edged up 165 points (0.32%) around 5:50 a.m. ET, while contracts tied to the S&P 500 slipped 21 points (0.27%) and those tracking the Nasdaq 100 shed 331.5 points, a drop of 1.1%.

Producer price figures, scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. ET, were set to draw attention from market participants seeking a read on factory-level inflation trends. Three economic data releases were lined up to land before the close of trading: September's retail sales tally, a new batch of weekly unemployment filings, and a handful of surveys tracking business confidence.

FedWatch data from CME Group put the probability of a central bank rate increase before the end of the month at 27%, a figure that had stood at 20% just seven days earlier. Traders placed the probability of a 25-basis-point rate increase in December at roughly two-thirds.

The Nasdaq pulled back more than 3% from the peaks it reached last week, as questions around interest rate trajectories and the scale of AI investment hung over what analysts projected would be a reasonably strong earnings period. Third-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies were forecast to climb 30.6%, with technology and energy sectors shouldering the bulk of that expansion, per LSEG data.

Rocket Lab's stock lost nearly a tenth of its value after the company announced that the first flight of its larger Neutron rocket would not take place until the following year.