US STOCKS-Wall St set to open higher after soft producer prices

The main US stock indexes ‌were ​on course for a higher open on Friday after data showed October producer prices were slightly softer than expected, potentially relieving some pressure on the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates aggressively. The gains could reassure investors at the end of a volatile week ‌that saw AI stocks reel from the resignation of Jensen Huang as CEO of chip heavyweight Nvidia, amid scrutiny of his relationship with a businesswoman suspected of spying for Beijing and other alleged extramarital affairs.

Traders are fully pricing in a hike by the central bank next month, with some policymakers in recent days raising the prospect of a 50-basis-point ‌increase, compared to a widely expected 25 bps rise. Odds of a 50 bps hike sit around 14%, according to CME's FedWatch tool. "I think they're going ‌to move more gradually. Inflation is elevated and at uncomfortable levels for the Fed, but there's no sign that it is getting out of hand," said Angelo Kourkafas, senior global investment strategist at Edward Jones.

At 8:47 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis rose 249 points, or 0.48%, S&P 500 E-minis added 38.25 points, or 0.5%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis gained 77.25 points, or 0.27%. The Producer Price Index for final demand rose ⁠0.3% last month, ​the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics ⁠said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the PPI climbing 0.4%.

Shares of Nvidia rose 2.3% in premarket trading after losing about 11% this week through Thursday, when Colette Kress was named interim CEO, heightening ⁠concerns surrounding the AI trade, but are still on course for their longest streak of weekly losses since October 2012. The controversy risks spilling over into the broader AI industry, since Nvidia is ​at the heart of the boom. The company's financing arrangements with several other artificial intelligence players could now face greater oversight because of the change in its ⁠leadership, investors said.

Still, the "AI story is more than just one person, even though that person was a very influential voice," Kourkafas said. MICROSOFT OUTAGE HITS SHARES

Microsoft's shares dipped less than 1% and the stock was the only ⁠loser ​in the Magnificent Seven group after a more than 12-hour outage of Outlook and Teams. Cerebras jumped more than 11% after the chip and cloud company raised its 2026 revenue forecast and signed Microsoft as a customer.

Strong earnings have at some points kept the negative market sentiment in check this week. Of the 450 companies ⁠in the S&P 500 that reported earnings as of Thursday, 83.6% surpassed expectations, according to Tajinder Dhillon, head of earnings and equity research at LSEG Data and Analytics. Still, investors ⁠are wary of a bunch of ⁠risks, including on the geopolitical front. Oil prices were in positive territory for the third consecutive session, a day after President Donald Trump said the US does not need a deal with Iran.

Crypto stocks were mixed, with Coinbase and Strategy down 1.6% and ‌0.3%, while MARA Holdings rose ‌1%. Bitcoin bounced off a nearthree-month low.