Nasdaq futures fell up to 1.5 per cent on Thursday evening in India as Alphabet's results revived concerns over rising artificial intelligence (AI) spending, while investors awaited a key US inflation reading a day after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged.
Alphabet shares fell 10.2 per cent in premarket trading, putting the Google parent's market value on track to decline by more than USD 400 billion if the losses hold. The company reported weaker-than-expected search advertising results and a surge in cash burn as AI-related spending accelerated.
Microsoft shares, however, rose 3.6 per cent after the company reported stronger-than-expected cash flow and forecast robust cloud growth, providing fresh evidence that its heavy investments in AI were paying off.
In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi, Shanghai's SSE Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended lower, while Japan's Nikkei 225 settled in positive territory.
European markets were trading higher in mid-session deals on Thursday. US equity markets had ended higher in overnight trade on Wednesday.