June 3 (Reuters) - Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures started the month on a positive note on Monday as falling U.S. Treasury yields boosted megacap growth stocks ahead of a data-packed week.
Megacap stocks including Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab, Meta (META.O), opens new tab and Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab gained between 0.2% and 0.4% in premarket trading, as yields on the benchmark U.S. 10-year and five-year notes slipped about 5 basis points each.
Chip stocks also jumped, led by AI leader Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab, which rose 3.5% after chief executive Jensen Huang said on Sunday the company's next-generation AI chip platform would be rolled out in 2026.
Yields began retreating off one-month highs on Friday as investors increased bets on a September start to interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve after inflation indicated a potential cooling of price pressures, as measured by the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index.
The technology sector (.SPRLCT), opens new tab closed slightly lower on Friday as investors rebalanced their month-end portfolios.
However, despite the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab and the Nasdaq (.IXIC), opens new tab snapping their five-week winning streaks on Friday, all three of Wall Street's main indexes ended May with strong gains.
The S&P 500 rose 4.8%, the Dow climbed 2.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose nearly 7% last month, as strong earnings and hopes of easing monetary policy buoyed Wall Street's biggest stocks.
"AI drivers, earnings and inflation will continue to drive the market," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.
Attention turns to crucial data this week, including surveys on the manufacturing and services sector, factory orders and Friday's closely watched nonfarm payrolls report, which will provide investors with clues on the health of the U.S. economy and the Fed's likely course of action.
Manufacturing survey readings for May from the Institute for Supply Management and S&P Global are due later in the day.
"We're going to be looking at employment data this Friday and we're getting a whole slew of economic reports, so inflation will still be very much foremost in investors' minds," Stovall said.
At 8:40 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 3 points, or 0.01%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 12.75 points, or 0.24%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 98 points, or 0.53%.
Among others, shares of GameStop (GME.N), opens new tab soared 74.4% after a weekend Reddit post from stocks influencer Keith Gill, also known as "Roaring Kitty," showed a $116 million bet on the gaming retailer.
Other so-called meme stocks such as AMC (AMC.N), opens new tab and Tupperware (TUP.N), opens new tab rose 25.2% and 10.3%, respectively, while retail-focused brokerage Robinhood (HOOD.O), opens new tab gained 4.1%.
Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), opens new tab rose 1.8% after it unveiled its latest AI processors and detailed plans to take on competitor Nvidia. Arm Holdings' U.S. listing (O9Ty.F), opens new tab added 2.3% after the company said it expects 100 billion of its devices to be ready for artificial intelligence by the end of next year.
Paramount Global (PARA.O), opens new tab shares gained 5.5% after a report on Sunday said Skydance Media had sweetened its buyout offer for the company to $15 per share.
Waste Management (WM.N), opens new tab will buy medical waste disposal company Stericycle (SRCL.O), opens new tab in a deal valued at $7.2 billion, the companies said, sending shares of the bigger firm down 1.7 % in choppy trading.
Reporting by Lisa Mattackal and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai
