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Updates with results from Cigna, Lam Research, UPS

By Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta

Jan 30 (Reuters) - Futures linked to the S&P and the Nasdaq rose on Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve paused its rate-cutting cycle, driven by post-earnings gains in megacaps including Meta and Tesla.

Meta Platforms META.O rose 0.9% in premarket trading after beating estimates for fourth-quarter revenue, but forecast that sales in the first quarter might miss estimates.

Tesla TSLA.O gained 2.1% after saying it was on track to roll out new, cheaper EV models in the first half of 2025. The company added it would start testing a paid autonomous car service in June, overshadowing quarterly results that fell short of expectations.

Meanwhile, Microsoft MSFT.O fell 4.1% after forecasting disappointing growth in its cloud computing business.

Scores of people were feared dead after an American Airlines AAL.O regional passenger jet carrying 64 people collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport. The carrier's shares were down 2%.

Health insurer Cigna CI.N slid 8.8% after it forecast annual profit below expectations and missed estimates for the fourth quarter, while United Parcel Service UPS.N dropped 11.9% after forecasting 2025 revenue below expectations.

Lam Research LRCX.O rose 6.1% after the chip-making equipment supplier forecast third-quarter revenue above expectations, driven by a surge in orders from chip firms amid the AI boom.

Chip-related companies Broadcom AVGO.O rose 5.1%, Applied Materials AMAT.O gained 2.7%, Marvell Technology MRVL.O advanced 4.1%, and Micron Technology MU.O added 1.9%.

Apple AAPL.O and Intel INTC.O are scheduled to report after markets close.

At 07:07 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were down 27 points, or 0.06%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 18 points, or 0.3%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 116.5 points, or 0.54%.

The U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday, removing language acknowledging easing inflation from its latest policy meeting statement. Chair Jerome Powell said there would be no rush to cut rates again until inflation and jobs data made it appropriate.

"We think the length of the (Fed's) policy hold will be set largely by how long tariff uncertainty persists," BNP Paribas economists said.

"This could take a while, perhaps several months, as the administration negotiates with trade partners and moves through the administrative process to document and impose tariffs."

A fourth-quarter GDP reading is scheduled to be released before markets open on Thursday, while December's personal consumption expenditures price index data is expected on Friday.

Wall Street's main indexes closed lower on Wednesday but were well shy of session lows and still below levels seen at the end of the previous week as markets assessed Powell's comments.

Markets were rocked earlier this week by the meteoric rise of Chinese startup DeepSeek's AI models, which posed stiff competition to leading U.S. artificial-intelligence model providers and sparked worries of a price war.

Among other early movers, IBM IBM.N jumped 8.2% after the company surpassed fourth-quarter profit expectations. ServiceNow NOW.N lost 9.3% after the software firm forecast annual subscription revenue below Wall Street estimates.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Shounak Dasgupta)

((Shashwat.Chauhan@thomsonreuters.com))