London (AFP) – Stock markets diverged on Thursday as investors digested company earnings, including better-than-forecast but not stellar results from chip titan Nvidia. Oil prices rose even as Iran and the United States began a new round of indirect talks on the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme, in a last-ditch bid to avert war.
The market response to Nvidia’s earnings Wednesday was muted as initial excitement over its record quarterly revenue gave way to concerns that sky-high expectations for AI have become almost impossible to meet. Shares in the firm — which last year became the first to top $5 trillion in market capitalisation — dipped in after-hours trade in New York Wednesday and then fell 4.3 percent in trading on Thursday.
“It says a lot when a stock market darling beating revenue forecasts by billions of dollars can no longer muster a positive share price reaction,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell. “The mood music is changing on Nvidia, and it represents a significant shift in investor sentiment,” he added.
Trade Nation analyst David Morrison noted that Nvidia’s shares had risen ahead of the earnings announcement. Moreover, the announcement “wasn’t the ‘stellar’ results with which the market has become accustomed, and this has left many investors pondering: ‘What next?'” Wall Street’s main indices were mixed in early afternoon trading, with the blue-chip Dow flat but both the broader S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite indices lower.
Shares in multinational automaker Stellantis, which makes brands such as Jeep and Fiat, climbed six percent as trading got underway in New York. The company posted a net loss of 22.3 billion euros ($26.3 billion) for last year, but it was mostly due to write-downs of assets as the carmaker shifts away from electric vehicles. Major European indices advanced. London set a fresh record, boosted by a 4.5 percent rise in Rolls-Royce shares after the British engine-maker upgraded its guidance, announced a share buyback, and posted soaring annual profits. Paris’s CAC 40 index crossed the 8,600 level for the first time and Frankfurt also rose.
In Asia, Tokyo hit a new record, while Hong Kong edged down and Shanghai was flat. Asian tech firms have enjoyed a blockbuster start to the year as investors reassess their AI bets. Attention is turning to “upstream” firms such as chipmakers and away from Wall Street’s “downstream” companies that run apps and software. The shift has come amid growing concerns about the hundreds of billions of dollars pumped into AI and when that will see a return, while a slew of new tools has raised fears the technology will disrupt other businesses.
Seoul nevertheless climbed more than three percent to a fresh peak on Thursday, led again by surges in Samsung and rival chipmaker SK hynix. The Kospi index is now up nearly 50 percent already this year. On currency markets, the yen clawed back some losses against the dollar that came after it emerged that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi had nominated two academics to the Bank of Japan board who are considered policy doves. That came after earlier reports had said she had told the central bank’s boss Kazuo Ueda of her concern about hiking interest rates further.
Key figures at around 1630 GMT:
New York – Dow: FLAT at 49,502.22 points
New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.6 percent at 6,903.70
New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 1.2 percent at 22,864.45
London – FTSE 100: UP 0.4 percent at 10,846.70
Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.9 percent at 8,634.74
Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.5 percent at 25,289.02
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 58,753.39 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.4 percent at 26,381.02 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: FLAT at 4,146.63 (close)
Dollar/yen: DOWN at 156.21 yen from 156.46 yen on Wednesday
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1793 from $1.1805
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3512 from $1.3554
Euro/pound: UP at 87.31 pence from 87.10 pence
West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.7 percent at $66.52 per barrel
Brent North Sea Crude: UP 2.1 percent at $72.17 per barrel
© 2024 AFP
