Nvidia to report, Fed minutes in focus - what's moving markets

investing.com:

Investing.com -- U.S. stock futures tick marginally lower ahead of a busy day that will feature much-anticipated results from AI-darling Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and minutes from the Federal Reserve's January gathering. Elsewhere, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos sells a fresh batch of shares in the e-commerce behemoth, bringing the proceeds from a raft of recent stock sales to $8.5 billion.

1. Futures marginally lower

U.S. stock futures pointed slightly lower on Wednesday, as investors geared up for key earnings from artificial intelligence chipmaking giant Nvidia and minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting.

By 03:00 ET (08:00 GMT), the Dow futures contract had shed 33 points or 0.1%, S&P 500 futures had dipped by 4 points or 0.1%, and Nasdaq 100 futures had fallen by 31 points or 0.2%.

The main averages slipped in the prior session, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite in particular falling by 0.9%. Weakness in Nvidia shares weighed on the index, in a sign that traders may be balking at the firm's expensive valuation prior to the release of its fourth-quarter results.

But an upbeat sales forecast and a dividend boost lifted Walmart (NYSE:WMT) to a record high, helping put a floor on losses in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The blue-chip index declined by 0.2%, while the benchmark S&P 500 retreated by 0.6%.

2. Nvidia earnings loom large

Nvidia will report after the U.S. market close later today, and is expected to clock per-share profit of $4.58 on a revenue of $20.37 billion.

The California-based group wiped out about $100 billion in market capital on Tuesday, as investors waited to see whether a massive earnings spike it has previously forecast materialized.

The results may also potentially