Wall Street set to open lower as chipmakers, Turkey worries weigh

By Shreyashi Sanyal

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower opening on Friday as weak forecasts from Applied Materials and Nvidia weighed on the shares of chipmakers and Turkey's battered currency slipped further.

Shares of Nvidia dropped 2.3 percent in premarket trading after the chipmaker said cryptocurrency-fueled demand had dried up and forecast current-quarter sales below Wall Street estimates.

Applied Materials slid 4.2 percent after the world's largest supplier of chip equipment forecast current-quarter results below estimates, adding to fears that a two-year chip boom may be losing steam.

Micron fell 1.7 percent, while Intel slipped 0.3 percent. Dutch chip equipment maker ASML's U.S.-listed shares dropped 1.3 percent, while Lam Research fell 1.9 percent.

The lira, already lower in the session, weakened further on a report that a Turkish court rejected an appeal for the release of detained American pastor Andrew Brunson, raising prospects of further U.S. sanctions.

"The situation in Turkey is troubling and until the rhetoric in the back-and-forth calms down it'll be on the forefront of investors minds," said Andre Bakhos, managing director at New Vines Capital LLC in Bernardsville, New Jersey.

"People will remove equity exposure amid the uncertainty especially given Turkey's public holidays next week."

Fresh troubles in U.S.-Turkey relations dulled Thursday's market optimism, which was due to waning trade worries after the United States and China said they would hold fresh talks later this month.

At 8:50 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 46 points, or 0.18 percent. S&P 500 e-minis were down 4.5 points, or 0.16 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 20 points, or 0.27 percent.

Deere fell 3.2 percent after the U.S. tractor maker's third-quarter profit missed analysts' expectations due to higher raw material and freight costs.

Nordstrom jumped 7.6 percent after the department store chain's quarterly same-store sales growth beat estimates, helped by healthy online sales.

Second-quarter earnings have been stronger than expected, with 79.3 percent of the 463 S&P 500 that have reported so far beating analyst expectations, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

On a thin day for economic data, the University Of Michigan consumer sentiment index is expected at 10 a.m. ET.

(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)