Futures linked to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices rise, while Dow futures inch lower. U.S. President Donald Trump tells Reuters that he has no plans to oust Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Chipmaking giant TSMC notches a record-high fourth-quarter profit thanks to soaring artificial intelligence demand, while more bank earnings are due out before the opening bell on Wall Street. Meanwhile, oil prices slump after Trump says killings in Iran are subsiding.

1. Futures mixed

U.S. stock futures hovered around both sides of the flatline on Thursday, as investors gauged heightened geopolitical tensions and early returns from the quarterly corporate earnings season.

By 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT), the Dow futures contract had slipped by 29 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 futures had gained 4 points, or 0.1%, and Nasdaq 100 futures had risen by 48 points, or 0.2%.

The main averages on Wall Street retreated in the prior session, weighed down by broad-based weakness in tech stocks and post-results selling in large banks.

Treasuries notched some gains. Yields, which tend to move inversely to prices, declined across a number of durations, with analysts highlighting a cooler-than-anticipated producer price index reading and a decrease in oil prices.

2. Trump says he has no plans to fire Powell - Reuters

President Trump has said he "doesn’t have any plan" to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, even after the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the leader of the U.S. central bank.

However, speaking to Reuters, Trump said that it remained "too early" to say what he would do regarding the matter.

Trump noted that the White House is in "a little bit of a holding pattern" with Powell, adding "we’re going to determine what to do."

Powell’s recent announcement that he had received a subpoena from the DOJ has sparked fresh concerns about the ability of the Fed to adjust monetary policy free of political influence. Powell denied wrongdoing, claiming that the investigation was part of a campaign to influence interest rates, which Trump has long argued should be aggressively and rapidly reduced.

Asked by Reuters about worries that eroding the independence of the Fed could dent the U.S. dollar and drive up inflation, Trump said "I don’t care."

The president also hinted that he preferred to appoint one of "the two Kevins" -- former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh or National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett -- to replace Powell when his term at the helm of the Fed ends in May. Trump also appeared to rule out Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as a candidate, saying "he wants to stay where he is."

3. TSMC’s record, AI-fueled fourth-quarter profit

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. posted a stronger-than-expected fourth quarter net profit, as the world’s largest contract chipmaker received yet another boost from outsized artificial intelligence-fueled demand for its advanced processors.

The firm set a much higher capital expenditure forecast for 2026, stating that it intends to ramp up production capacity aggressively to meet the rising AI demand.

TSMC expects 2026 capital expenditure to be in a range of $52 billion and $56 billion, compared to $40.90 billion in 2025, CFO Wendell Huang said in a post-earnings call.

Huang warned that TSMC’s mid-to-long-term margins were also on track to weaken as the chipmaker continues to build out its production capacity, especially overseas. CEO C.C. Wei also flagged "significantly higher" capital expenditures and costs in the coming years.

TSMC clocked a record-high net profit of T$505.74 billion ($16 billion) in the three months to December 31, more than Bloomberg estimates of T$467.0 billion and higher than the T$374.68 billion seen a year ago.

4. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs to report

Elsewhere on the earnings calendar, results are due out from major U.S. banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

These will round out a week of reports from the biggest lenders on Wall Street, including names like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. Along with kicking off the latest slate of quarterly earnings, the numbers are seen as barometers of the state of U.S. economy and Corporate America more broadly in the opening weeks of 2026.

So far, bank executives have described the economy as resilient to widespread uncertainty stemming from sweeping U.S. tariffs, sticky inflation, and signs of a weakening labor market.

Collectively, JPMorgan, BofA, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo have reported total full-year profits of $123.2 billion, up by almost 5% from 2024, according to calculations from the Wall Street Journal.

5. Oil falls amid calming Iran fears

Oil prices slumped, snapping a five-day winning streak as Trump indicated a more restrained stance on Iran, easing fears of near-term supply disruptions.

Brent futures dropped 3.5% to $64.20 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 3.4% to $59.92 a barrel.

Prices have surged more than 10% over the last five sessions, reaching multi-month highs on fears that unrest in Iran could trigger U.S. military action and disrupt production or shipping.

Trump said on Wednesday that he had been told that killings in Iran’s crackdown on nationwide protests were subsiding and he believed there was currently no plan for large-scale executions.