US STOCKS-Wall St futures gain as AI enthusiasm eases worries over higher oil prices, yields

‌US ​stock index futures rose on Friday as AI optimism offset weak sentiment due to worrying levels of oil prices and rising Treasury yields.

Chip stocks Advanced Micro Devices, Marvell , Cerebras and ‌Intel rose 2% each to lead gains in premarket trading. Megacaps Tesla, Nvidia and SpaceX were also marginally higher. Akamai Technologies shares surged 21% after the IT services company signed a $11.6 billion cloud services deal with AI lab Anthropic.

Optimism this week among AI sectors was driven ‌by the increased traction among young consumers for Meta's AI application Muse and a device integrated with the AI agent, Charm. Shares ‌of the social media giant were set for its fifth-straight week of gains. It would be the stock's biggest five-week gain since late January 2023, putting it less than 1% away from the $2 trillion market value. Meta was trading flat premarket.

At 05:15 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 162 points, or 0.31%, and ⁠S&P ​500 E-minis were up 23.75 points, ⁠or 0.31%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 188 points, or 0.61%. The communication services, which includes Meta, and tech led weekly gains among S&P 500 sectors. The ⁠benchmark index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq were set for weekly gains.

However, gains were capped by Brent crude prices hovering at more than $100-a-barrel and the ​yield on the 10-year Treasury note at 5.1% amid growing inflation worries due to the prolonged Iran and Ukraine conflicts, ⁠as well as soaring government debt. Offering some hope was a report that US and Iranian negotiators continued to explore a phased path out of war that would ⁠involve ​Tehran reopening the Strait of Hormuz and Washington lifting its economic blockade.

Traders see a 71% chance that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates by at least 25 basis points in October, up from around 50% earlier this week, the CME ⁠Group's FedWatch Tool showed. Policymakers, including New York Fed President John Williams, Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, ⁠are likely to echo ⁠their restrictive stance on monetary policy when they speak later in the day.

Data on durable goods for August is also due at 8:30 a.m. ET. People rose 9.4% after a report said MGM ‌Resorts International was discussing ‌a bid for the online services company.