Stock futures edged slightly higher as investors parsed the all-important earnings release from artificial intelligence darling Nvidia. Nasdaq-100 futures hovered above the flatline, while S&P 500 futures rose more than 0.1%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 122 points, or almost 0.3%. Nvidia shares shed nearly 1% in the premarket even after the company beat expectations for the third quarter and issued strong guidance. To be sure, the company’s revenue grew at a slower rate than in previous quarters. Investors may have also anticipated a stronger quarter given the enthusiasm around the stock this year. The move “tells you how much the expectations game on Nvidia has been ramped up,” Aswath Damodaran, finance professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” “They don’t just have to beat analyst estimates; they got to beat them by 10%.” Nvidia shares are up 194% for the year through Wednesday’s close. On the other hand, Snowflake jumped more than 21% after the data analytics software company beat expectations for the third quarter. That action follows a mixed day on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 ending near flat. The Dow jumped nearly 140 points, while the Nasdaq Composite ticked down 0.1%. Traders will watch Thursday for economic data on jobless claims and existing home sales. Cleveland Federal Reserve President Beth Hammack, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee and Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid are also expected to give remarks throughout the day. On the corporate earnings front, investors will parse reports from Gap and Intuit expected after the market closes. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield dipped on Thursday as investors await a fresh batch of economic data and a flurry of speeches from Federal Reserve policymakers. The 10-year Treasury yield fell marginally to 4.402%, while the yield on the 2-year Treasury slipped slightly to 4.306%. Asia-Pacific markets fell Thursday, with investors watching tech shares in the region after chipmaker Nvidia reported better-than-expected results. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.85% to 38,026.17, and the broad-based Topix slipped 0.54% and closed at 2,682.81. Semiconductor equipment supplier Advantest, which disclosed it’s relationship with Nvidia in 2023, pared losses to close 1.6% lower. South Korea’s Kospi reversed gains to a marginal loss, closing at 2,480.63, while the small-cap Kosdaq dropped 0.33% and ended at 680.67. Nvidia supplier SK Hynix reversed gains to drop 1.06%, while heavyweight Samsung Electronics gained 1.99%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was marginally lower, finishing at 8,323. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.32% as of its final hour, while mainland China’s CSI300 gained 0.09% to 3,989.3. Oil prices rose on Thursday as Russia and Ukraine launched missiles at each other, overshadowing the impact of a bigger-than-expected increase in U.S. crude inventories. Brent crude futures rose 96 cents, or 1.3%, to $73.77 as of 1017 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 99 cents, or 1.4%, to $69.74. Prices had earlier risen by more than $1. Spot gold price rose for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday, with safe-haven demand for the precious metal supported by global stocks under pressure after AI bellwether Nvidia’s revenue growth forecast failed to excite investors. Spot gold was up 0.7% at $2,669.30 per ounce by 1040 GMT. “This is a risk-off move. But the safe-haven pressure is coming more from falling stocks after Nvidia disappointed the Street than from Ukraine’s fight against Russia,” said Adrian Ash, head of research at online marketplace BullionVault.