Nasdaq futures fall 1 percent as Nvidia takes down chipmakers

By Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) - Nasdaq futures fell more than 1 percent on Friday, as disappointing forecasts from chip companies Nvidia and Applied Materials battered the technology sector and fueled further worries about a chip boom that maybe grinding to a halt.

Nvidia Corp shares fell 18.2 percent in premarket trading after the chip designer blamed unsold chips piling up as the cryptocurrency mining boom fizzles out.

Rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc dropped 7.5 percent and Micron Technology Inc, which sells memory to Nvidia for its gaming cards, declined 4 percent.

Results for Applied Materials Inc, seen as a barometer for the chip equipment maker industry, also discouraged investors after its earnings forecast fell below Wall Street estimates. Its shares were down 10.6 percent.

The weakness is likely to add to this week's pain for technology stocks, down more than 2.4 percent, hit by concerns about softening demand for iPhones, tighter regulation and a weakening chip sector.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor index after gaining more than 35 percent each in 2016 and 2017, is down about 1.5 percent this year.

"We're seeing a downward sloping demand that is affecting the chip companies," said Mark Grant, chief global strategist at B. Riley FBR Inc, Fort Lauderdale in Florida.

"It has something to do with the cryptocurrencies, but it has more to do with the lack of demand ... and technology is certainly the most endangered sector right now because of the very high valuations."

At 8:48 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 167 points, or 0.66 percent. S&P 500 e-minis were down 20.75 points, or 0.76 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 91.25 points, or 1.32 percent.

The S&P 500 snapped a five-day losing streak on Thursday, helped by a report that said Washington would pause further tariffs on Chinese imports.

But hopes of a trade deal were dampened following a Reuters report later on Thursday that suggested a breakthrough was unlikely at talks expected between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the sidelines of a G20 summit in Argentina later this month.

European markets struggled again as British Prime Minister Theresa May battled to defend her much-criticized draft divorce deal with the European Union as calls grew for a vote of no confidence in her leadership.

In a gloomy week for retailers, department store operator Nordstrom Inc fell 10.9 percent after quarterly same-store sales missed estimates and the company reported charges from a credit card problem.

Viacom Inc rose 3 percent after beating profit estimates, boosted by the strong performance of "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" and signing a multi-picture film deal with Netflix Inc.

PG&E Corp jumped 47.5 percent, following steep losses in the past six days, after Bloomberg reported that a regulatory official said it did not want the utility to go into bankruptcy should it be found responsible for the deadly wildfires in northern California.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)