Sunday, December 22, 2024

Stock market today: Dow ekes out another record as investors await Nvidia earnings

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AI juggernaut Nvidia (NVDA) will report second quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday. The report has been branded as critical for the artificial intelligence trade and the tech sector at large.

Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley has a preview of what to expect:

Nvidia’s announcement — the most anticipated results of the quarter — comes as the stock is up more than 163% year to date and 60% in the last six months. Rival AMD’s (AMD) stock price is up 9% year to date and down some 14% over the last six months.

Intel (INTC) shares have collapsed 57% since the start of the year and are down 53% over the last six months as the company continues to struggle amid its massive turnaround effort.

For the quarter, Nvidia is expected to report adjusted earnings per share of $0.65 on revenue of $28.7 billion. That works out to a 139% jump in EPS and a 113% increase in revenue compared to the same period a year ago when Nvidia saw EPS of $0.27 and revenue of $13.5 billion.

Nvidia is the world leader in AI chip design and software, controlling between 80% and 95% of the market, according to Reuters. And it’s expected to continue to hold that lead as it begins rolling out its next-generation Blackwell line of chips.

And while the Information has reported a potential delay in Blackwell shipments, analysts at firms including Goldman Sachs, KeyBanc, and Loop Capital don’t see that as much of a concern for Nvidia in the near term.

“Our work suggests that while Blackwell is in fact delayed as we first wrote about on [Aug. 8], it could be more like 120 days vs 90 days … although it may not matter much as [1)] Hopper yields from TSMC continue to improve and [2)] The amount of increased Hopper production through the fall may outweigh the amount of Blackwell forgone by the push out,” Loop Capital managing director Ananda Baruah said in an investor note.

For the quarter, Nvidia’s all-important data center business is expected to bring in $24 billion in revenue, a 142% increase from the $10.3 billion the segment saw in the same quarter last year. Wall Street is expecting Nvidia to not only beat its Q2 expectations but raise its guidance for Q3.

Read more here.

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