European Shares Seen Tad Lower At Open

(RTTNews) - European stocks are seen opening broadly lower on Thursday despite strong earnings and guidance from chipmaker Nvidia.

The AI bellwether forecast first-quarter revenue above market estimates, helping ease concerns that momentum in artificial intelligence spending was cooling.

U.S. stock futures ticked lower as investors weigh the impact of new U.S. tariffs on global growth and monitor ongoing frictions in the Middle East.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to block a pillar of U.S. trade policy has caused yet more uncertainty for trade partners and companies.

It remains unclear what will happen to nearly 20 framework deals or firmer trade agreements that the Trump administration has reached with countries in recent months.

Geopolitical risks also remain on investors' radar before a fresh round of nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran in Geneva, Switzerland.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran possessed a very large number of ballistic missiles that threaten U.S. interests in the region and it was trying to develop weapons that can reach the continental United States.

Asian stocks were broadly higher, with South Korea's Kospi hitting another record as chip stocks surged on Nvidia guidance and the Bank of Korea lifted its growth forecast after holding rates steady, as widely expected.

The dollar was on the back foot and gold held near three-week highs ahead of U.S. weekly jobless claims data due later in the day, followed by January's producer price index report on Friday.

Oil prices hovered near seven-month highs amid jitters about the threat to supply from potential military conflict between the U.S. and Iran.

U.S. stocks ended higher overnight, building on the gains from the previous session after Anthropic launched new AI tools, positioning its products as additive, rather than threatening, to existing software providers.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.3 percent, the S&P 500 climbed 0.8 percent and the Dow rose 0.6 percent.

European stocks rose to a new record on Wednesday as new U.S. tariffs came into effect at 10 percent under a different legal framework.

Investors also digested solid regional data, with Eurozone inflation falling to a 1-month low in January, Germany returning to growth in the fourth quarter and French consumer confidence improving slightly in February.

The pan-European STOXX 600 advanced 0.7 percent to set a new record. The German DAX gained 0.8 percent, France's CAC 40 added half a percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 surged 1.2 percent.