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Meta rises on upbeat revenue forecast

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Arm Holdings down after tepid Q2 revenue forecast

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Western Digital ( WDC ) slumps after Q1 revenue forecast below

estimates

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Futures up: Dow 0.08%, S&P 500 0.41%, Nasdaq 0.49%

(Updated at 7:02 a.m. ET/1102 GMT)

By Ankika Biswas and Shubham Batra

Aug 1 (Reuters) - Futures tied to Wall Street's main

indexes kicked off August on a high note, boosted by the Federal

Reserve's signals of a September rate cut and a rosy sales

forecast from Meta, while a pullback in some megacap and chip

stocks kept gains in check.

Meta Platforms ( META ) soared 6.5% in premarket trading

after a second-quarter revenue beat and an upbeat third-quarter

sales forecast pointed to the possibility that its artificial

intelligence costs would be covered.

"Meta has bought the AI theme some time... investors are

willing to overlook increased capital expenditure, as long as

revenue growth remains strong," said Kathleen Brooks, research

director for XTB.

The Facebook-owner's quarterly results were the first among

the "Magnificent Seven" group of companies to enthuse investors,

allaying concerns around AI spending following dismal earnings

from Alphabet and Microsoft ( MSFT ) last month.

Markets have been on tenterhooks, looking for signs that the

tech behemoths can hold on to their bumper gains after steering

U.S. equities to record highs this year on AI euphoria and hopes

of early rate cuts.

Most megacap stocks rose, with Apple ( AAPL ) and Amazon.com ( AMZN )

gaining 0.9% and 1.3%, respectively, ahead of their

results, due after markets close. Tesla was down 0.3%.

AI-trade favorite Nvidia ( NVDA ) rose 2.2%, a day after

adding about $330 billion to its market value - a record one-day

gain for any Wall Street company.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq had their best day

since Feb. 22 on Wednesday, after Fed Chair Jerome Powell

offered the stock market a likely pivot to policy easing in

September, with inflation on track to achieve the 2% target

without undue damage to the labor market.

However, with the prospect of rate cuts gaining traction,

investors are now trying to gauge if the central bank will be

able to ease policy at a pace consistent with achieving the much

awaited "soft landing" for the economy.

Economic data including weekly jobless claims and

manufacturing PMIs, due through the day, is at the top of

investors' watch list.

At 7:02 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 32 points,

or 0.08%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 23 points, or 0.41%,

and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 95.25 points, or 0.49%.

Moderna ( MRNA ) tumbled 11.9% after it cut its 2024 sales

forecast for COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus vaccines

by up to 25%, or $1 billion, as it expects very low sales to the

EU.

Eli Lilly ( LLY ) was up 2.2% after

trial results

showed weight loss drug Zepbound reduces the risk of

hospitalization, death and other outcomes for obese adults with

a common type of heart failure.

Arm Holdings slumped 8.4% after a conservative

revenue forecast, while Qualcomm ( QCOM ) lost 1.3% on flagging

a revenue hit after the U.S. revoked one of its export licenses

for sanctioned Chinese telecom firm Huawei.

Western Digital Corp ( WDC ) dropped 4.3% after it forecast

first-quarter revenue below estimates.

Of the 283 S&P 500 companies that have reported

second-quarter earnings till date, 78.4% beat expectations, LSEG

data showed.