(Nov 20): Robust Nvidia Corp earnings sent US tech stocks higher in after-market trading, extending a rally on Wall Street and helping set up Asian stocks for early gains. The dollar rose while Treasuries fell across the curve.
Nvidia shares jumped over 5% after the close as the company issued a fourth-quarter revenue forecast that beat estimates, underscoring resilient demand tied to the ongoing build-out of AI infrastructure.
Equity-index futures signalled gains for benchmarks in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan, after the S&P 500 snapped a four-day losing streak. A US$390 billion exchange-traded fund tracking the Nasdaq 100 advanced 1% after the close of regular trading, in a sign of bullish sentiment triggered by Nvidia’s results. Shares in Alphabet Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Amazon.com Inc all rose in post-market trade.
The positive results bolstered a fledgling sense of calm after heavy selling in technology stocks in prior weeks as investors grow uneasy about potentially stretched valuations and dimming expectations for imminent Federal Reserve rate cuts. With investors increasingly skittish about tech spending, how Nvidia’s results are interpreted will be key.
“Betting against the bulls and the buy-the-dip instinct have not been winning strategies over the past three years,” said Mark Hackett at Nationwide, prior to Nvidia’s results.
The dollar rose on Wednesday, with traders nearly pricing out a rate cut next month as the Bureau of Labor Statistics won’t publish an October jobs report, but will incorporate the payrolls figures into the November data due after the Fed’s final meeting of 2025.
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Minutes from the Fed’s October meeting showed many central bank officials said it would likely be appropriate to keep rates steady for the remainder of 2025. The document came out on the eve of the September jobs report.
The US 10-year yield rose around two basis points to 4.14% on Wednesday. Gold climbed for a second day while oil prices fell on rising US inventories. Bitcoin traded around US$90,300 after a Wednesday decline.
“Uncertainty is running high because of the lost data and the unclear impact of tariffs,” said David Russell at TradeStation. “There’s no consensus at the Fed with policymakers flying blind, but these minutes lean hawkish overall.”
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Elsewhere, Japan’s Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said she confirmed the need to monitor market movements with Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda and Growth Strategy Minister Minoru Kiuchi, as the officials reaffirmed a joint accord aimed at overcoming deflation and achieving sustainable growth. The yen traded above 157 per dollar.
Nvidia’s sales will be about US$65 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter, which runs through January, the chipmaker said in a statement on Wednesday. Analysts had estimated US$62 billion on average, with some predictions ranging as high as US$75 billion.
“Compute demand keeps accelerating,” chief executive officer Jensen Huang said in the statement. “AI is going everywhere, doing everything, all at once.”
Nvidia’s numbers remain extremely strong now, but there are inevitably questions whether Huang’s company has already reached its high-water mark in terms of growth and market share, noted David Russell at TradeStation.
“Despite the recent pullback in tech stocks, we expect AI-driven innovation to propel global stock markets higher,” said Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi at UBS Global Wealth Management.
“Ongoing investments in AI, the strong financial health of today’s leading tech firms, and both the potential and growing evidence of returns on investments give us confidence in the next leg of the global equity rally in the months ahead,” she said.
Uploaded by Isabelle Francis
