Tonight's Highlights: S&P 500 Eyes Record Highs; Philadelphia Semiconductor Index Teeters on Brink of Bull Market

U.S. stock index futures edged higher in pre-market trading, positioning the S&P 500 for another run at record highs following encouraging wholesale inflation data.

 

As of writing, Nasdaq 100 futures (SEP6) ticked up 0.19%, S&P 500 futures gained 0.25%, and Dow futures rose 0.32%.

 

At Wednesday's close, the S&P 500 stood at 7,748.5 points—just shy of its record closing high of 7,757 points and its intraday peak of 7,793 points.

 

Market narrative continues to center around the sentiment that "the summer of AI is back." Following last month's sharp sell-off, South Korea's KOSPI index closed Thursday up 22% from its July 30 low, officially entering a technical bull market.

 

Expectations that Samsung and SK Hynix are set to announce fresh shareholder return programs have further bolstered market sentiment in recent sessions.

 

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has rebounded nearly 19% from its July lows, leaving it on the cusp of technical bull market territory.

 

Macroeconomic data also brought welcome news. The U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) for July rose 4.7% year-over-year, coming in below consensus estimates of 4.9% and down from 5.5% previously.

 

On a monthly basis, PPI was flat, beating expectations for a 0.2% increase. Separately, initial jobless claims—which have lingered near multi-decade lows in recent months—rose to 209,000 last week.

 

Combined with Wednesday's in-line CPI readings, the data has all but extinguished market fears of a September rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

 

Finally, Brent crude eased slightly on Thursday to around $87 per barrel, though negotiations aimed at ending the conflict with Iran showed no signs of progress.

U.S.-listed AI server manufacturers surged in pre-market action on Thursday after Lenovo Group delivered Q1 results that comfortably beat market expectations.

 

HP Inc. rose over 7%, while Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise climbed nearly 4%. Lenovo reported Q1 revenue of $26.94 billion—a 43% year-over-year surge—far surpassing analyst projections of $22.42 billion.

 

 

Coherent reported record quarterly revenue of $20.5 billion, driven by explosive demand for optical interconnects across AI data centers that accelerated top-line growth and expanded margins.

 

Despite the stellar figures, the stock slipped over 6% in pre-market trading, seemingly weighed down by elevated market expectations for an even stronger beat.

 

 

Shares of AI chipmaker Cerebras, known for its wafer-scale technology and on-chip SRAM, tumbled over 17% pre-market. The company's hardware sales unexpectedly dropped 23% year-over-year to $54.1 million. Conversely, cloud service revenue quadrupled to $125 million amid insatiable market demand for compute.

 

Investors were rattled by the shift, as the firm—once billed as a direct competitor to Nvidia—sees its primary revenue engine rapidly tilt toward cloud computing services.

 

 

European shipping giants A.P. Moller-Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd posted strong quarterly earnings on Thursday.

 

Maersk delivered Q2 results that topped consensus estimates and raised its 2026 full-year profit outlook—marking the second time the company has upgraded its guidance this year.

 

 

U.S. pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced Wednesday that it has filed lawsuits against six American companies for illegally marketing and selling unapproved compounded versions of retatrutide, Lilly's experimental obesity drug currently in clinical trials.