Jan 23 (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures slipped on Friday, setting the S&P 500 and Nasdaq up for a second consecutive weekly drop, as Intel tumbled on a downbeat outlook and lingering geopolitical concerns kept risk appetite in check.
Stocks have rebounded in the past two sessions following Tuesday's sharp selloff triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to impose tariffs on European allies until Washington was allowed to buy Greenland.
Trump later tempered tariff threats and ruled out taking Greenland by force, but the S&P 500 (.SPX), and Nasdaq (.IXIC), were still set to close the week lower. Safe-haven flows persisted amid uncertainty over potential Greenland negotiations, sending gold to a record high and putting it on track for its best week in nearly six years.
At 06:57 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 111 points, or 0.22%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 9.75 points, or 0.14%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 42 points, or 0.16%.
INTEL DISAPPOINTS
Intel's (INTC.O), shares slid 12.8% in premarket trading after the chipmaker forecast quarterly revenue and profit below market estimates, saying it struggled to satisfy demand for its server chips used in AI data centers. Its shares have surged about 50% since the start of the year.
Many of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks, including Apple (AAPL.O), Tesla (TSLA.O), and Microsoft (MSFT.O), are set to report earnings next week. Given their weightage on indexes, their outlooks will be closely watched to see how much juice remains in the growth stories which so far have justified their sky-high valuations.
Driven by a strong U.S. economy and expectations of interest rate cuts this year, market gains have broadened beyond the megacap names to other pockets in the stock market. Both the small-cap Russell 2000 (.RUT), and the Dow Jones Transports indexes (.DJT), touched record highs on Thursday.
Nvidia (NVDA.O), rose 1.3% after Bloomberg News reported Chinese officials have told Alibaba (9988.HK), Tencent (0700.HK), and ByteDance that they can prepare orders for Nvidia's H200 AI chips.
FEDERAL RESERVE RATE DECISION
The Federal Reserve is expected to hold rates at 3.5%–3.75% next week, but investors will comb through the statement and Chair Jerome Powell's remarks for signals on what is next amid a bumpy economic backdrop. CME's FedWatch tool shows markets penciling in the first cut for June.
After some better-than-expected economic data releases on Thursday, investors await the S&P Global's business activity surveys for January and University of Michigan's consumer sentiment data later in the day.
Trump, who has criticized Powell for waiting too long to cut interest rates, said he will soon announce his pick for the next Fed chair.
Among other movers, Intuitive Surgical (ISRG.O), rose 3.3% after it beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit and revenue on growing demand for its surgical robots used in minimally invasive procedures.
SLB (SLB.N), rose 1% after beating estimates for fourth-quarter profit.
U.S.-listed shares of silver miners such as Hecla Mining (HL.N), and Coeur Mining (CDE.N), rose 2% and 0.7%, respectively, as silver prices touched record highs and neared $100-per-ounce mark for the first time.
Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri
