Asian shares were mostly lower on Thursday after a mixed close on Wall Street, with regional markets shrugging off a strong profit report from Nvidia that was released after U.S. markets closed.
Nvidia again topped analysts' expectations, but technology shares in Tokyo declined due to the company's lower-than-hoped for profit forecasts. In after-hours trading, Nvidia’s shares lost 2.5%.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.9% in morning trading to 38,001.80, as shares in semiconductor equipment maker Advantest Corp. dropped 2.7%. Chip maker Tokyo Electron shed 1.5%.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped nearly 0.2% to 8,313.50. South Korea's Kospi rose nearly 0.5% to 2,493.91. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 0.2% to 19,662.49, while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.2% to 3,361.58.
Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, noted the market reaction to Nvidia's results was muted, partly because of the positioning that happened before the release. Its long-term prospects remain complex, he added.
“The bigger question remains: where exactly is the bar for Nvidia now?” Innes said in a commentary. “This push to integrate AI into every corner of the corporate world risks backfiring when the technology is forced into roles it isn’t fully equipped to handle.”
Trading in the options market suggested Nvidia’s profit report was the most anticipated event left in 2024, more than even the Federal Reserve’s upcoming meeting on interest rates, according to Barclays Capital.
Nvidia has grown into a nearly $3.6 trillion behemoth because of nearly insatiable demand for its chips used in artificial-intelligence technology.
It’s grown so fast, with its stock nearly tripling for the year so far, that pressure has grown for it to show it can keep leapfrogging past analysts’ already high expectations.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 finished the day virtually unchanged, at 5,917.11 after coming back from a loss of 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a 0.3% gain, to 43,408.47, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1% to 18,966.14.
U.S. retailer Target’s 21.4% tumble followed a report showing weaker profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The retailer also gave a forecast for profit in the upcoming holiday season that was below analysts’ estimates.
Rival Walmart reported another quarter of stellar sales Tuesday and released optimistic projections for the holiday season.
Hints about how U.S. consumers are doing are under particular scrutiny, since their spending will help determine if the U.S. economy will continue growing and avoid a recession. Shoppers are contending with high prices across the economy and still-high interest rates.
“I find the Target and Walmart earnings very interesting because we typically see a waterfall type effect when the economy begins to struggle, with shoppers trading down from stores such as Target to Walmart,” said JJ Kinahan, CEO of IG North America.
Comcast rose 1.6% after announcing the spinoff of USA, CNBC, MSNBC and other cable television networks into a standalone company that will have its own stock trading on the market.
All told, the S&P 500 inched up by 0.13, or less than 0.1%, to 5,917.11. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 139.53 points to 43,408.47, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 21.32 to 18,966.14.
Financial markets are also still absorbing the impacts of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, including expectations that Trump’s policies will drive faster U.S. economic growth and inflation.
Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market. The 10-year yield edged up to 4.41% from 4.40% late Tuesday. It has been generally rising from less than 3.70% in September.
In other dealings early Thursday, benchmark U.S. crude gained 17 cents to $68.92 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 18 cents to $72.99 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 155.05 Japanese yen from 155.31 yen. The euro cost $1.0551, down from $1.0546.
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AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.
Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@yurikageyama
