An index of global stocks edged higher in choppy trading on Thursday as markets digested lackluster revenue forecasts from artificial-intelligence chipmaker Nvidia, while oil prices climbed amid rising tension from the Russia-Ukraine war.
Shares of Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company and a major contributor to the gains this year in the benchmark S&P 500, hit a record high early in the session before reversing direction and declining about 1%. The chipmaker forecast its slowest revenue growth in seven quarters on Wednesday.
“(Nvidia’s) results are still good but I think the disappointment came from maybe not quite as much of an upward guide on the Q4 number for the top line,” said Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers in Boston.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were lifted by energy, industrials and consumer staples stocks. Communication services stocks were the biggest drag on the Nasdaq, driven by losses in Alphabet, which is down about 6%. U.S. prosecutors argued on Wednesday that Alphabet must divest its popular Chrome browser to end Google’s search monopoly.
The Dow rose 0.84% to 43,774.53, the S&P 500 gained 0.24% to 5,931.60 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.40% to 18,890.59.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe was up 0.14% to 849 after losing ground early in the session. European shares were up 0.37%.
“The market seems to be looking for a narrative right now and is in a little bit of a void for any news that can shape the direction of things,” Melson added.
Bitcoin soared and is closing in on the $100,000 milestone. The world’s largest cryptocurrency has benefited from expectations that the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump will be crypto-friendly. Bitcoin gained 2.52% to $96,818.00. Ethereum rose 7.33% to $3,306.40.
Markets are also eyeing Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, who will play a key role in implementing his agenda of tariffs, tax cuts and deregulation.
The dollar rose in choppy trading as investors assessed declining weekly jobless claims, suggesting labor-market strength, and comments from two Federal Reserve governors on the path of interest rates.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.63% to 154.45 but it strengthened 0.15% to 0.885 against the Swiss franc.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,rose 0.22% to 106.84, with the euro down 0.42% at $1.05.
Oil prices rose more than 1% after Russia and Ukraine exchanged missiles, raising crude-supply concerns. Brent crude futures rose 1.72% to $74.06. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rallied 1.86% to $70.04.
Spot gold rose, on track for the fourth-consecutive session of gains after hitting a more than one-week high. Spot gold rose 0.73% to $2,669.18 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 0.61% to $2,664.30 an ounce.
A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan
There’s not too much to worry about at the world’s most valuable company - or the artificial intelligence theme - but just conceding that triple-digit growth can’t last forever has been enough to stall Nvidia’s share price and dampen global tech stocks.
The $3.6 trillion chip giant’s revenue forecast on Wednesday disappointed Wall Street, with its stock down more than 3% premarket - with peers Advanced Micro Devices, Intel and Qualcomm off about 1% in sympathy and European chipmakers down as well.
Although it beat most metrics and consensus estimates yet again, Nvidia forecast its slowest revenue growth in seven quarters and flagged supply chain constraints through next year. Its executives warned investors the company’s margins would sink several percentage points to the low-70% range until production kinks are ironed out.
But don’t shed too many tears. The AI bellwether’s latest earnings report was by most standards still extraordinary - sales in its main data center segment more than doubled and the company’s forecast revenue of $37.5 billion for fourth quarter was above average estimates of $37.09 billion.
And in many respects, the price reaction is modest. After another 20% share surge over the past two months, markets feel most of the ongoing boom is already in the price for now.
More worrying on Wednesday was U.S. retailer Target’s big miss on its profit and holiday-quarter sales forecast - which sent its stock plummeting more than 20% and stood in contrast to the previous day’s beat from the world’s no. 1 retailer Walmart.
The politics of President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration still dominated thinking in the background - with no sign yet of his pick for Treasury Secretary - and geopolitical worries rumbled abroad.
One of the few post-election trades to keep on moving was Bitcoin - and the dominant crypto asset zoomed close to a record $98,000 overnight, up more than 40% over the past month.
Overall, the broader market was more subdued, with stock futures marginally in the red on Thursday and most European and Asian indexes lower too.
U.S. Treasury yields slipped back despite a poorly received 20-year bond auction on Wednesday - but the dollar remained firm.
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