Inflation reading, consumer sentiment, Pinduoduo: 3 things to watch

Investing.com -- Stocks wobbled on Thursday as Nvidia's (NASDAQ:NVDA) outlook lifted tech stocks despite worries that there still was no resolution to the ongoing debt ceiling standoff.

Nvidia is projecting a record quarter because of surging demand for chips that help power artificial intelligence technology, especially around generative chatbots that have caught the public's attention in the last few months. Tech giants from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google are driving demand for the chips, as are cloud services providers.

The positive outlook is lifting shares of other chip makers, which are also seen benefiting from the trend at varying degrees.

The enthusiasm is drowning out fears about a possible government default if the debt ceiling issue isn't resolved in the next week. Biden administration officials have warned that Congress has until June 1 or thereabouts to raise or suspend the debt ceiling before it runs out of options. But negotiators are still trying to hammer out details on spending levels with Congress set to break for the long holiday weekend.

Friday brings additional information on inflation that the Federal Reserve will be closely watching as it heads into its June policy meeting. Expectations are now rising that the Fed will raise rates again in June, with futures traders being almost evenly split between a rate hike and a pause. Just days ago, most futures traders expected that the Fed would pause in June.

Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:

1. Inflation data

The personal consumption expenditure index, a closely watched barometer of inflation, is expected out at 8:30 ET (12:30 GMT). Analysts expect the April number rose 3.9% from the same month last year and 0.4% from March. Personal income is seen rising 0.4% for the month and spending 0.4% for the month.

2. Consumer sentiment

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment gauge for May is expected out at 10:00 ET. Analysts expect a reading of 57.9, more pessimistic than the previous reading.

3. Pinduoduo earnings

The Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo (NASDAQ:PDD) is expected to report earnings per share of $4.47 on revenue of $32.1 billion.