Wall Street futures mixed as investors weigh midterm election impact on AI spending

Wall Street stock futures were mixed on Thursday as investors weighed the Democratic Party's major midterm election victory and its potential impact on technology and AI infrastructure spending. Dow Jones futures rose about 0.61%, while S&P 500 futures were nearly flat and Nasdaq-100 futures fell 0.45%. The divergence followed Wednesday's strong rally, when all three major indexes closed higher, with the Dow jumping 3%, the S&P 500 rising 1.6%, and the Nasdaq advancing 1.4%. Data center operators and neocloud providers, including CoreWeave, IREN, and Nebius, remained under pressure amid concerns about stricter regulations, with UBS estimating about 30% of expected US data center capacity additions in 2028 could be at risk. Chip stocks also faced selling pressure as investors reassessed AI infrastructure demand, with South Korea's Kospi falling over 5% and Samsung Electronics down about 7.6%. Investors awaited weekly jobless claims data and Friday's jobs report, while Qualcomm and Arm Holdings both traded lower after their earnings reports.