Dow and Nasdaq deep in the red as tech sold in favour of defensives

Walmart and Alphabet’s Wing said they will expand their drone delivery partnership to seven new U.S. metro areas—Memphis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area and Salt Lake City—under a plan for a 270-location network. Wing said it has completed well over 1 million commercial deliveries. Service uses tethered drones to drop packages in about 30 minutes, with availability via Walmart or the Wing app.

Wall Street futures rose as tech buying lifted Nvidia, Intel and Micron after Wednesday’s selloff pushed major indexes down over 1% and tech into correction territory. Oil eased on expectations of renewed Strait of Hormuz talks amid US-Iran exchanges of messages. Dow E-minis +0.73%, S&P 500 +0.74%, Nasdaq 100 +1.19%. Investors also await US producer prices and jobless claims; Oracle fell 7% on higher-than-expected fiscal 2027 capex, while Navan rose 17.6% after raising full-year forecasts.

Infleqtion, a Colorado quantum firm with offices in Madison, said it is accelerating after going public earlier this year, citing $550 million in new funding. Chief Scientist Mark Saffman (UW-Madison) discussed neutral-atom computers, sensors and software, plus contracts including work with JPMorgan Chase and NASA. Separately, Port Washington data center developers and WEC Energy asked Wisconsin’s PSC to reopen “very large customer” power-collateral rules, arguing Oracle may face ~$100M+ annual

U.S. stock index futures rose Thursday as investors bought beaten-down tech shares after a prior selloff pushed the Nasdaq and others into correction territory. Nvidia, Intel and Micron were up in premarket trading. Signs of progress in U.S.-Iran peace talks and expectations for Strait of Hormuz reopening helped lift risk sentiment and weigh on oil. Dow E-minis +0.73%, S&P 500 E-minis +0.74%, Nasdaq 100 E-minis +1.19%.

Bernstein says rising memory prices could raise costs for Nvidia’s customers as AI systems scale. It estimates Nvidia’s Vera Rubin NVL72 will cost about $9.1M per rack, with memory/storage reaching ~$3.2M as high-bandwidth memory prices more than triple by shipment. For a 1-gigawatt data center, it estimates ~$47B vs ~$40.5B with prior chips. Bernstein also cites higher networking, cooling, and power costs, and says Nvidia may pass increases via pricing power.

Nvidia reported fiscal 2027 Q1 revenue up 85% year over year to $81.6B, with data center revenue up 92% to $75.2B, and adjusted EPS up 140% to $1.87, driven by demand for Blackwell and Vera Rubin chips. The company guided Q2 revenue up 95% to $91B and said it will return 50%+ of free cash flow to shareholders. It raised its quarterly dividend to $0.25.