NEW YORK, May 14, 2026, 06:01 EDT
U.S. stock futures ticked up early Thursday, with Wall Street eyeing fresh record territory as Cisco’s AI-driven rally in premarket trading kept tech names in the spotlight. Futures contracts showed the Dow up 0.24%, Nasdaq 100 ahead by 0.41%, and the S&P 500 gaining 0.19% as of 5:35 a.m. EDT, according to TipRanks.
Investors are once more weighing if AI-fueled investment and profits can outpace the latest rate jolt. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both finished at new all-time highs on Wednesday, recovering on the back of chipmakers and tech giants. This came even as the Producer Price Index—a key gauge of what businesses are paid—jumped 1.4% in April, marking its steepest monthly climb in four years.
Traders aren’t just watching Cisco on Thursday. April retail sales numbers are set for release by the Census Bureau at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, and at the same time, the Labor Department drops its weekly jobless claims update. Both figures land before the bell, offering early clues on consumer spending and layoffs.
Cisco shares jumped 19% premarket after the networking giant detailed plans for nearly 4,000 layoffs and boosted its revenue outlook, pointing to robust demand from hyperscalers fueling AI infrastructure. Third-quarter revenue set a new high at $15.8 billion, a 12% increase. Cisco also hiked its fiscal 2026 AI infrastructure order forecast, now expecting $9 billion, up from $5 billion.
Cisco boss Chuck Robbins described the company as “critical infrastructure for the AI era,” a comment that helped shine a light on networking rivals. Cisco shares were trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 22.77, according to Reuters, while Arista Networks sat at 35.64 and Hewlett Packard Enterprise at 12.37. Cisco Newsroom
“Hyperscaler capex spilling downstream”—that’s how Ryan Lee, Direxion’s senior vice president of product and strategy, put it after Cisco’s move. Investors, he said, are starting to look past just chipmakers. Simply put: AI-related spend is now hitting switches, routers, optics, and the rest of the hardware that ties big data centers together. Reuters
Nvidia remained in focus. Reuters said the U.S. gave the green light for about 10 Chinese companies—Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com among them—to purchase Nvidia’s H200 AI chips. Shipments hadn’t started yet, as Jensen Huang looked for movement during President Donald Trump’s trip to China.
U.S. traders woke up to steadier global markets. According to Reuters, AI-driven optimism pushed world stocks to fresh highs. Europe’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.5%. Wall Street futures were green, with investors tracking the Trump-Xi meeting for any movement on trade, Taiwan, or tech. “The lack of new spats was, for now, ‘enough,’” said Saxo’s Charu Chanana. Reuters
Rates still pose the bigger challenge. On Wednesday, the Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as the incoming Fed chair. According to Reuters, traders are betting the Fed will keep its 3.5%-3.75% policy-rate target steady through this year, as inflation has picked up pace.
Prediction markets echoed similar caution. According to DeFi Rate, Kalshi traders priced in a 97% chance the Fed holds rates steady in June, with odds at 65% against any Fed rate cut before 2027. Over on Polymarket, bets gave a 71% likelihood of no cuts at all in 2026, and a 77% probability that the S&P 500 would open Thursday higher.
More caution coming from the Fed. Boston’s Susan Collins flagged the possibility of further policy tightening if inflation stalls, and over in Minneapolis, Neel Kashkari warned the Fed is “dead serious” about tamping down inflation. Reuters
Traders have piled into a single bet, which could backfire. Brent held over $106 a barrel, with WTI north of $101, as all eyes stayed on the Trump-Xi meeting and tensions around the Strait of Hormuz. A hot retail-sales number or fresh trouble for energy supply would likely send yields on another leg up.
Beneath the surface, breadth was shakier than headline index gains indicate. The Dow edged down 0.1% on Wednesday, according to AP, while the Nasdaq climbed 1.2% and the S&P 500 added 0.6%. Nvidia and other tech names pushed higher, but plenty of stocks lost ground following the wholesale inflation release.
