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US STOCK FUTURES EDGE UP; BALL'S IN YOUR COURT, MICRON

Wall Street is set to put the brakes on its two-session drop on Wednesday, with AI capex and a queasy, unsteady peace in the Middle East providing much of the drama.

Much weight has been placed on the shoulders of memory chipmaker Micron MU.O and its after-the-bell earnings report, which will provide the latest exhibit in the pro/con debate over the speed and size of AI hyperscalers, which have increasingly tapped into debt markets to fund their expansion even as the Warsh Fed appears poised to hike borrowing costs.

Chipmakers .SOX have dropped 6% in the last two days, while the broader tech sector .SPLRCT has slid 3.7% over that same timeframe.

Today marks Alphabet's GOOGL.O first day as a constituent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI and Verizon's VZ.N first session since the telecom was shown the door to make room for the Google parent.

On the geopolitical stage, the United States and Iran remain at loggerheads over issues like nuclear inspections, the fate of frozen Iranian assets, Israel's parallel war in Lebanon and the flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, all of which need to be hammered out in the laborious negotiations process.

Front month crude prices are lower, which bodes well in that regard.

Happy trading!

(Stephen Culp)

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EARLIER ON LIVE MARKETS:

SURGING HYPERSCALER CAPEX SPARKS SHARE BUYBACK SHIFT CLICK HERE

UK BANKS: HOT RUN, COLD VALUATIONS CLICK HERE

"MATERIAL" EQUITY OUTFLOWS FROM PENSION FUND REBALANCING EXPECTED AT QUARTER-END CLICK HERE

STOXX STEADY; RHEINMETALL TUMBLES, SEGRO BOOST REAL ESTATE CLICK HERE

BEFORE THE BELL: EUROPE SOFT AHEAD OF MICRON AFTER TECH ROUT CLICK HERE

TIME TO CASH IN YOUR CHIPS? CLICK HERE