Stock Futures Tick Higher as Fed Meeting Begins, JOLTS Data Due; Trump Approves Nvidia H200 Chip Sales to China

Stock futures pointed slightly higher Tuesday after President Donald Trump approved limited sales of Nvidia H200 AI chips to China and the two-day Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates set to kick off.

Futures associated with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, benchmark S&P 500, and tech-heavy Nasdaq were up 0.1%, 0.1%, and fractionally higher, respectively.

Yesterday, the three major indexes all finished lower after they ended last week within striking distance of all-time highs.

Investors expect officials to lower their policy rate by a quarter percentage point tomorrow, with the CME Group’s FedWatch tool indicating financial markets are pricing in a nearly 90% likelihood the central bank will cut its key rate to a range of 3.5% to 3.75%.

Traders also will be paying attention to Tuesday’s delayed release of the October job openings and labor turnover survey (JOLTS), which is due at 10 a.m. ET.

The 10-year Treasury yield, which influences interest rates on a variety of commercial and consumer loans, ticked lower to below 4.16% from around 4.17% at Monday’s close.

Bitcoin was trading around $90,300 at 4 p.m., down from overnight highs near $91,400. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, was little changed at 99.05.

Gold futures were up 0.4% at $4,235 an ounce, while West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, rose 0.3% to $59.05 a barrel.

Shares of Nvidia (NVDA), the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization at around $4.5 trillion, ticked higher before the bell after President Trump said the U.S. will allow the firm to ship its H200 chips to “approved customers” in China and other countries.

Alphabet (GOOGL) stock edged lower after the European Commission opened a probe into whether its Google unit breached EU competition rules by using web publishers’ content for AI purposes. Home Depot (HD) shares fell 1.5% after gave preliminary fiscal 2026 projections below analysts’ expectations.

Shares of Paramount Skydance (PSKY) and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which closed up a respective 9% and 4.5% Monday after Paramount launched a hostile takeover for WBD, were up 3% and 1% further in premarket trading. WBD, the storied movie studio and HBO Max streaming service operator, on Friday had agreed to be acquired by Netflix (NFLX) for $83 billion but President Trump said Sunday that Netflix’s deal “could be a problem.” Netflix shares ticked higher after falling about 3.5% yesterday.