4 stocks to watch on Wednesday: NVDA, PANW, CVX, and VRT

Stock index futures showed mixed trading activity on Wednesday following a technology-led retreat on Wall Street during the prior session. Investors are closely monitoring several high-profile corporate developments across the technology and energy sectors, with particular attention on major artificial intelligence dealmaking and upcoming corporate earnings reports. Among the top stories, NVIDIA Corporation is reportedly considering a potential acquisition of AI platform Hugging Face for an estimated valuation of up to $14 billion. While discussions remain ongoing and no final agreement has been confirmed, the proposed transaction would significantly bolster Nvidia's proprietary AI ecosystem, developer tooling, and software capabilities across enterprise workloads. Elsewhere in the market, Chevron Corporation confirmed plans to more than double its Venezuelan oil output to approximately 600,000 barrels per day over the next five years. Meanwhile, cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks reported robust quarterly performance featuring a 34% surge in revenue, exceeding Wall Street expectations across product and subscription segments.