Washington (awp/afp) – The New York Stock Exchange opened without conviction on Thursday, with investors seeking to position themselves following the results of semiconductor behemoth Nvidia, while bitcoin continues its post-election surge.
Around 3:15 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones gained 0.40%, the Nasdaq index dropped 0.33% and the broader S&P 500 index gained 0.10%.
Nvidia, the world’s largest capitalization, published results for its delayed third quarter on Wednesday evening after Wall Street closed, clearly exceeding investors’ expectations and ensuring that demand for its chips dedicated to artificial intelligence was not slowing down.
Net profit reached $19.3 billion, according to a company press release published Wednesday, a figure which more than doubled over one year (+109%).
“Nvidia has been able to deliver good results” and “with the group being an iconic figure in artificial intelligence (AI), this has given investors hope that the AI theme still has space to develop,” observed Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments to AFP.
Some investors, however, seemed to note the fact that the company expects a slight decline in its gross margin for the current quarter compared to the previous one.
After opening in the green, the company lost 0.74% around 3:15 p.m. GMT.
The semiconductor sector was dispersed: Broadcom (+0.30%) and AMD (-0.50%) declined, while Qualcomm (+0.52%), Micron (+0.75%), Intel ( +0.52%) and Marvell Technology (+2.09%) rose.
The American market also reacted to the progression of bitcoin which exceeded the $98,000 mark on Thursday around 11:05 GMT, continuing its race to the record started since Donald Trump’s victory in the American presidential election. Around 2:55 p.m. GMT, the cryptocurrency stood at $97,085.
“Bitcoin is the strongest asset class after the election, and a lot of that is driven by Donald Trump’s pro-cryptocurrency policies,” Sarhan noted.
Supported by the prospects of relaxing regulations desired by the Republican candidate, certain cryptocurrency players such as Robinhood (+1.08%) or MicroStrategy Incorporated (+1.47%) were sought after.
In terms of indicators, new unemployment claims fell in the United States, standing at 213,000 compared to 219,000 last week, a number revised upwards.
This drop is notably due to “the resolution of the strike (…) at Boeing which had disrupted the entire aerospace industry”, explained Samuel Tombs, of Patheon Macroeconomics, in a note.
On the bond market, the yield on 10-year US government bonds stood at 4.38%, compared to 4.41% the day before at closing.
Elsewhere on the stock market, the operator of remote computing services (cloud) Snowflake soared (+29.61%) after publishing results clearly above analysts’ expectations.
The cybersecurity group Palo Alto Networks was sanctioned (-1.53%), suffering from forecasts deemed disappointing by investors.
The multi-brand cosmetics store chain Ulta Beauty fell (-2.24%) after being given a poor rating by the investment bank William Blair.
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