Page One

Updated: 27-Aug-26 08:59 ET
Bulls warming up

Briefing.com Summary:

*Equity futures receive strong tailwind from another stellar report from NVIDIA (NVDA)

*Weekly initial claims remain at low level

*Jackson Hole Symposium set to begin tonight

 

It might not be Pamplona, but after four days of sideways action, the bulls are ready to run this morning with the Nasdaq setting the early pace thanks to last evening's release of another spectacular quarterly report from NVIDIA (NVDA).

The chip (and market cap) leader saw its Q3 revenue grow more than 100%, resulting in record daily revenue growth of more than $1 billion. The company beat almost all expectations, save for gross margin, which matched estimates. Interestingly, the stock fell in initial reaction to the report before bouncing strongly. The bounce developed after management said that the company is increasing its strategic commitments in the buildout of AI infrastructure to $279 bln from $119 bln and announced an expansion of its partnership with Amazon's (AMZN) AWS.

NVIDIA's early strength will give a considerable lift to the PHLX Semiconductor Index, which has been trading in sideways fashion since giving up the bulk of its August gain over the past ten days.

Besides NVIDIA's results, the overnight session saw little in terms of developments that could upset the current state of affairs. The Bank of Korea raised its policy rate by 25 bps to 3.00%, which was expected. The central bank hinted at a slower pace of hikes going forward.

The overnight data flow was on the light side and the U.S. slate contained a few reports that had little impact on the futures market.

Initial jobless claims for the week ending August 21 decreased by 4,000 to 203,000 (Briefing.com consensus 210,000) from last week's revised total of 207,000 (from 206,000). Continuing jobless claims for the week ending August 15 decreased by 18,000 to 1.778 million from last week's revised total of 1.796 million (from 1.799 million).

The key takeaway from the report is that initial claims continue hovering just above the 200,000 mark, showing little change in overall layoff activity while continuing claims are just above their lowest level of the year.

Separately, the goods trade deficit widened to $118.8 bln in the advance estimate for July from $101.4 bln in June while advance Retail Inventories grew 0.7% and advance Wholesale Inventories increased 1.3%.

Treasuries trade with a slight downside bias. The 2-yr yield is up one basis point at 4.23% while the 10-yr yield is inching up to 4.67%. The U.S. Treasury will cap this week's auction schedule with a $44 bln 7-yr note auction at 13:00 ET.

Later tonight, Kansas City Fed's Jackson Hole Symposium themed "Financial Innovation: Implications for Payments and Policy" will begin, and Fed Chairman Warsh will deliver the keynote address tomorrow morning.

Send
Chat Icon