US stock futures were mixed on Thursday as Wall Street’s record-setting advance ran into a fresh test from the most crowded corner of the AI trade.
Dow futures added 123 points or 0.3% and S&P 500 contracts were little changed, while Nasdaq 100 futures fell 133 points or 0.5% after Western Digital and SanDisk slid despite powerful earnings and sales growth.
The split shows investors are no longer rewarding AI exposure automatically: after extraordinary rallies, strong results must now clear expectations embedded in valuations.
Oil, Federal Reserve policy and labour-market data add further uncertainty before Friday’s payrolls report, leaving the market balanced between record highs and renewed technology volatility.
5 things to know before Wall Street opens
1. The Dow’s record masks a weaker technology tape
The Dow closed at a record 54,349.12 on Wednesday, gaining 0.5%, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.2% and the Nasdaq lost 0.8%.
The divergence carried into Thursday’s futures session, with industrial and defensive shares offering support as technology weakened.
Wall Street’s broader trend remains positive. The major indices have gained strongly this week after earnings from several large companies restored confidence in corporate spending.
Yet the latest price action shows the rally is becoming less forgiving.
Investors are rotating rather than abandoning risk, rewarding companies with visible cash flow while cutting exposure to AI-linked stocks where expectations have moved faster than near-term profits.
2. Western Digital and SanDisk show why a beat is no longer enough
Western Digital reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $3.75 billion, up 44%, and adjusted earnings of $3.56 a share, both ahead of estimates.
It also forecast first-quarter revenue of $4 billion to $4.2 billion. Even so, the shares dropped sharply as investors took profits after a roughly 200% gain this year.
SanDisk’s revenue surged to $8.97 billion and net income reached $6.9 billion.
However, its first-quarter sales forecast of $10.3 billion to $10.8 billion was less impressive against a consensus estimate near the top of that range.
After a rise of about 400% in 2026, merely strong guidance was not enough to protect the stock.
3. The storage sell-off is spreading across the chip complex
The reaction pulled other semiconductor names lower before the bell. Micron fell about 3.5%, while AMD, Marvell Technology and Intel declined more than 1% each.
That matters because memory and storage stocks have become some of the clearest proxies for AI infrastructure demand.
Their earnings still show rapid growth, but investors are questioning how much of that growth is already reflected in valuations.
The weakness also followed steep falls in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in Seoul, reinforcing the global nature of the pullback.
Megacap technology was steadier, with Apple and Alphabet gaining, suggesting the pressure was concentrated in the most extended hardware trades rather than the entire sector.
4. SpaceX faces a supply test as its first lock-up expires
SpaceX rose modestly before the bell, but its first post-IPO lock-up expiry could prove more important than the early move.
As many as 912 million shares become eligible for sale on Thursday, potentially more than doubling the public float. Further staggered releases could free another 12.9 billion shares by mid-2027.
Employees and early investors have large paper gains even after the stock fell 49% from its June peak, creating an incentive to diversify.
The key question is not whether every eligible holder sells, but whether a few prominent early backers reduce their stakes.
Heavy insider selling could reinforce concerns about spending and add volatility after this week’s post-earnings decline.
5. Oil, the Fed and jobs data remain the macro swing factors
Brent traded near $80 and WTI around $75 as investors assessed an emerging Iran-Oman framework for navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
The market remains sceptical because Gulf crude and condensate exports were still about 40% below pre-war levels in July, while reported attacks on Saudi tankers revived supply concerns.
Lower oil would ease inflation pressure, but the Federal Reserve’s September decision remains finely balanced after Chair Kevin Warsh offered little guidance.
July private payrolls rose by only 44,000, sharpening attention on Thursday’s jobless-claims report and Friday’s nonfarm payrolls.
ConocoPhillips, Molson Coors and Keurig Dr Pepper are also due to report, giving investors fresh signals from the energy and consumer sectors.
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