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Snowflake jumps after raising annual product revenue

forecast

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Deere shares up after Q4 profit beats estimates

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Crypto stocks gain as bitcoin prices near $100,000

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Weekly jobless claims stand at 213,000

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Futures: Dow up 0.45%, S&P 500 up 0.47%, Nasdaq up 0.49%

(Updates before market open)

By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal

Nov 21 (Reuters) -

U.S. main stock indexes were poised for a higher open on

Thursday as investors focused on signs of a healthy economy, and

AI-heavyweight Nvidia's ( NVDA ) upbeat quarterly results and forecast.

Wall Street's biggest company, Nvidia ( NVDA ), rose

1.3% in premarket trading after surpassing expectations for

quarterly results, and projected fourth-quarter revenue above

estimates.

The stock had fallen earlier as some investors were

unimpressed that the forecast was its slowest in seven quarters.

"Nvidia ( NVDA ) had a spectacular quarter ... but it is

overshadowed by expectations. Great expectations are built in

the stock and have been running at the rate at which Nvidia ( NVDA ) has

been running," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B

Riley Wealth.

Other chip stocks were mixed, with Broadcom ( AVGO ) up 1.4%

and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) rising 1.1%, while Intel ( INTC )

inched up 0.2%.

Growth stocks Meta Platforms ( META ) rose 0.6%, Amazon.com ( AMZN )

added 0.8% and Apple ( AAPL ) climbed 0.2%.

At 8:49 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 195 points, or

0.45%, Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 102.5 points, or 0.49%

and S&P 500 E-minis were up 28 points, or 0.47%.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) has led much of the U.S. market rally since mid-2023

on expectations that artificial intelligence integration could

boost corporate profits. The stock has risen more than nine-fold

in the past two years and the company boasts a market value of

$3.5 trillion.

Wall Street indexes have retreated from their record highs,

with post-election euphoria giving in to caution after

President-elect Donald Trump named his cabinet picks, as markets

weigh the potential inflationary impact of his policies.

On the data front, a weekly report on jobless claims

stood at 213,000, compared with expectations of 220,000.

Money market bets were tied between expectations that

the Fed will lower interest rates by 25 basis points at its

December meeting or if it will stay put, according to the CME

Group's FedWatch.

"The employment picture is a little bit stronger and one

could think that would give the Fed another reason to either

pause in December or to slow things down in 2025," said Sam

Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

Investors also kept an eye on escalating tensions between

Russia and Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin said the United

States is more vulnerable to inflationary shocks than in the

past, according to a media report.

Comments from Federal Reserve officials Austan Goolsbee

and Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr are on tap.

Deere shares gained 1.2% after the farm equipment

maker beat Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit.

Alphabet dropped 0.8% after the Justice Department

argued to a judge that Google must sell its Chrome browser and

take other measures to end its monopoly on online search.

Crypto stocks such as MARA Holdings ( MARA ) jumped 10%,

MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) rose 14% and Coinbase gained

2.4% as bitcoin prices soared to nearly $100,000 for the

first time.

Snowflake raised its annual product revenue

forecast and said it has teamed up with AI firm Anthropic to

build up its cloud services, sending the data analytics

provider's shares up 25%.

Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ) lost 3.3% after announcing a

two-for-one forward stock split after the cybersecurity firm

topped quarterly revenue and profit expectations.