U.S. stocks rose after Nvidia, the world's most valuable chipmaker, reported better-than-expected third-quarter results and gave a positive outlook.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials moved up 28 points, or 0.1%, to 35,895.
Futures for the S&P 500 picked up 11.75 points, or 0.3%, to 4,698.
Futures for the NASDAQ advanced 82.25 points, or 0.5%, to 16,393.75.
Nvidia shares popped more than 8% in pre-market trading after beating on the top and bottom lines of its quarterly results and issued a bullish revenue forecast for the current quarter ending in January. The chipmaker reporter a 55% gain in data center sales from the same period a year ago and its biggest market, gaming, reported a 42% sales increase.
Those gains helped lift other chip stocks in early morning trading. Advanced Micro Devices gained 2% while Skyworks and Micron Technology added more than 1%.
Retail continued its big earnings week. Shares of Macy's and Kohl's kicked the day off jumping 11% and 7%, respectively. Both companies smashed quarterly profit and revenue estimates, much like its peers who reported earlier in the week. Most have reported same-store sales gains from the previous year and investors are optimistic going into the holiday shopping season.
Elsewhere, Deere saw its shares rise more than 1% after it came to a resolution with workers who had been on strike since Oct. 14.
Dow component Boeing also saw its shares rise another almost 2% following on upgrade from JPMorgan, which said the aerospace giant has significant upside as it clears up several issues that have dogged the company.
Going in the other direction, Cisco Systems fell 5% due to weaker revenue guidance and a revenue miss. Kraft Heinz shares also dropped more than 2% after the company announced a secondary offering of common stock.
Overseas, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.3% Thursday, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong tumbled 1.3%.
Oil prices inched higher 0.10 cents to $78.46.
Gold prices dropped $4.30 to $1,865.90 U.S. an ounce