NEW YORK: US stock index futures were steady today as the Middle East conflict entered its sixth day, stoking fears of inflationary pressures that could complicate the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) monetary policy decisions.
Buoying sentiment were strong forecasts from Broadcom that projected its artificial intelligence (AI) chip revenue would exceed US$100 billion next year, sending shares of the chip designer up 7.6% in premarket trading.
Despite the US-Israeli air war against Iran showing no signs of cooling off, Wall Street’s main indexes have fared better than their European and Asian counterparts this week, aided primarily by a rebound in technology stocks that bore the brunt of February’s selloff.