US STOCKS-Nasdaq futures slip with Nvidia woes, Anthropic IPO in focus

Futures tracking ​the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index fell on Tuesday as investors ​assessed fresh updates on the controversy surrounding Nvidia CEO ‌Jensen ​Huang as well as details on Anthropic's initial public offering.

Inflation data later in the day is also likely to set the tone for the rest of the week. A hotter-than-expected Consumer Price Index reading ‌could threaten the recent nascent recovery in stocks. Shares of Nvidia, the second-most valuable company in the world, trimmed most of their premarket gains and were last up 0.3%.

Jensen Huang's affair with Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang, alleged to be a spy for Beijing, facilitated the shipment of at least $7.5 billion worth ‌of the company's chips through Chinese firms, The Information reported. As CEO of the company at the heart of the AI boom, Huang's leadership ‌and future at Nvidia are particularly important to investors.

At 6:04 a.m. ET, Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 96.75 points, or 0.35%. Dow E-minis were up 159 points, or 0.3%, and S&P 500 E-minis added 0.75 points, or 0.01%. ANTHROPIC IPO DETAILS SCRUTINIZED

Anthropic's initial public offering is expected to raise as much as $64.4 billion, according to the latest draft ⁠prospectus seen by ​Reuters on Tuesday. The prospectus sets the ⁠stage for one of the biggest IPOs on record. A listing by Anthropic could also force other AI heavyweights to compete harder for investor dollars.

"The easy AI trade, ⁠where you could buy any company that was part of the AI ecosystem and make money from a general optimism about AI's potential, is mostly done," wrote ​Aswath Damodaran, a finance professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. Chips were subdued in premarket trading, with Intel and Marvell Technology ⁠each about 2% lower.

Separately, cooling oil prices on Tuesday emboldened investors to wade into some corners of the equity market, pushing Dow futures higher. Brent crude futures slipped below $90 a ⁠barrel ​for the first time since August.

Data later on Tuesday is expected to show the CPI increased 0.3% last month after accelerating by 0.6% in September, a Reuters survey of economists predicted. On an annual basis, core CPI is estimated to have expanded 2.8%, following a 2.6% gain ⁠in September. The rate is still well above the Federal Reserve's 2% target.

Additionally, neocloud firm CoreWeave is expected to report quarterly earnings after market close ⁠on Tuesday. Questions about the sustainability of ⁠the AI boom and the company's debt burden have pressured the stock recently. A strong performance could help reassure investors about the health of the industry, which SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said could face consolidation and ‌failures.

CoreWeave shares were ‌0.14% higher in premarket trading. Its peer Nebius fell 0.6%.