Nasdaq futures dive 1% as AI rout deepens on debt concerns

Our Take

This is no longer just a Fed story. Wednesday's hot CPI started the selling, but the new piece is credit stress: CoreWeave fell 15% Wednesday and its bonds now yield more than 15%. When the debt market starts charging that much to fund AI data centers, investors begin asking who pays for the rest of the buildout, and the whole chip and AI infrastructure trade gets repriced.

The contagion is global. South Korea's Kospi dropped almost 8% and the Nikkei about 5% overnight. Here, Micron was down about 4%, Oracle 2% and Nvidia 1.3% pre-market. One offset: TSMC posted record profit and raised its outlook, so AI demand itself looks fine. The worry is the financing, not the orders.

The next catalyst lands at 8:30 a.m. ET: PPI, retail sales and jobless claims. Another hot inflation print would add Fed-hike risk on top of the credit worries.

Levels for Thursday:
- QQQ closed Wednesday at $728.95 (-2%) and was trading near $720 pre-market.
- Resistance: Wednesday's low at $726.39, then the $740 high. Reclaiming $726 would show dip buyers are back.
- Support: $720.70, where the Sept. 21 gap started. QQQ is already testing it pre-market (low $718.61). Below that, the $712 to $714 zone (Sept. 17-18 lows).
- NVDA closed at $221.30 and is near $217.50 pre-market, already below Wednesday's $219.64 low, which now acts as resistance. Next support: $217 (Sept. 17 low), then $212.50 (Sept. 16 low).

On a gap-down day like this, we'd let the first 15 to 30 minutes play out before picking a side.

Opinion of Tech & Money Press. Not financial advice.