Wall Street surged in early trading following Nvidia’s impressive earnings report, with the S&P 500 rising 1.2% and the Nasdaq gaining almost 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has a smaller tech stock weighting, rose 0.6%. Nvidia’s stock jumped more than 12% after reporting soaring revenue and profit in the latest quarter, driven by robust demand for its AI chips.
In overnight trading, Japan’s Nikkei 225 reached an all-time high, closing at 39,098.68, surpassing its previous record set in December 1989 before Japan’s bubble economy collapse in the early 1990s.
Futures for the S&P 500 were up 1.3% before the bell, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.4%.
Nvidia’s strong earnings, released after markets closed on Wednesday, beat Wall Street forecasts, with the chipmaker’s revenue tripling over the past year due to growing investor interest in artificial intelligence. The company’s shares were up more than 14% early Thursday.
However, electric truck and SUV maker Rivian fell 14.5% after reporting another loss and issuing weak production guidance. Lucid, another electric vehicle manufacturer, slid 9.5% after missing Wall Street’s sales guidance and providing a weaker production forecast than analysts expected.
Online craft marketplace Etsy also slipped 10.9% after missing Wall Street’s profit forecast by a wide margin.
Cruise ship companies Royal Caribbean and Carnival Corp. both rose more than 5% before the bell.
Later on Thursday, the government is set to release its weekly report on U.S. layoffs, which have remained low overall, despite several high-profile companies announcing job cuts in recent months.
In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up less than 0.2%, Germany’s DAX climbed 1.4%, and the CAC 40 in Paris rose 1%.
In Japan, the Nikkei’s strong performance has been driven by foreign investors, who account for the majority of trading volume on the Tokyo exchange. Record corporate earnings have boosted shares in Japanese companies, despite the economy slipping back into a technical recession late last year.
In other Asian markets, Chinese stocks benefited from reports that stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen froze accounts of a major hedge fund after it dumped $360 million in shares in just one minute on Monday. China also banned major institutional investors from selling equity holdings at the open and close of each trading day, which appeared to encourage investors wary of earlier efforts to prop up the markets. The Shanghai Composite index gained 1.3%, and the Shenzhen Composite was also up 1.3%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 1.5%
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged less than 0.1% higher, while the Kospi in Seoul added 0.4%.
In commodity trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 22 cents to $77.69 a barrel, while Brent crude fell 21 cents to $82.82 per barrel. The U.S. dollar was trading at 150.26 Japanese yen, down from 150.31 yen, and the euro was at $1.0858, up from $1.0823.
On Wednesday, stocks on Wall Street ended mostly higher, with the S&P 500 rising 0.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 0.1%, while the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.
Featured Image: Freepik @ wirestock
