Nasdaq-100 futures rose Thursday as Wall Street assessed the latest quarterly results from market bellwether Nvidia.
Market Snapshot
At 08:20 a.m. ET, Nasdaq-100 futures jumped 1%, while S&P 500 futures added 0.7%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%. Ethereum (ETH) is currently trading around $3,930, nearly up 27% this week. This surge is driven by growing anticipation of spot Ethereum ETF approvals from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Pre-Market Movers
Nvidia — The chipmaker jumped 7% on the back of its strong fiscal first-quarter results, better-than-expected guidance and 10-for-1 stock split announcement. Super Micro Computer and Advanced Micro Devices popped more than 5% and 3%, respectively.
Taiwan Semiconductor — The chipmaker advanced 2.4% after forecasting annual revenue growth at 10% for the global semiconductor industry.
Live Nation – Shares of the concert giant dropped 6% premarket after Bloomberg reported the Department of Justice and a group of states are expected to file a lawsuit against the company in the Southern District of New York on Thursday for antitrust violations related to Ticketmaster’s domination of concert ticket sales.
Snowflake — The cloud-computing company rose 3.8% after exceeding Wall Street’s first-quarter revenue estimates. Snowflake posted $829 million in revenue, while analysts polled by LSEG had called for $786 million. Adjusted earnings for the period came in at 14 cents a share, however, missing the consensus estimate by 4 cents.
News Corp — Shares popped more than 5% following the announcement late Wednesday that the media company struck a “multi-year global partnership” with OpenAI. As part of the deal, OpenAI can display content from NewsCorp’s outlets within its ChatGPT chatbot.
VF Corp — The North Face and Vans parent tumbled 13.6% after reporting an unexpected loss per share and soft revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter. VF Corp saw a loss of 32 cents per share on $2.37 billion in revenue, while analysts polled by LSEG anticipated 1 cent earned per share and $2.41 billion in revenue.
NetEase — U.S. shares of the Chinese game maker dropped 3.4% on the back of weaker-than-expected first-quarter revenue. NetEase also dolled out a smaller quarterly dividend than it did in the prior quarter.
E.l.f. Beauty — The cosmetics maker added 3.4% after easily surpassing consensus forecasts from analysts surveyed by FactSet for the fiscal fourth quarter. Specifically, e.l.f. posted 53 cents in earnings per share, excluding items, on $321.1 million in revenue, while analysts penciled in just 33 cents on $292.6 million in revenue. However, full-year guidance came in under expectations.
LiveRamp Holding — The advertising technology firm rallied 14.5% on stronger-than-predicted earnings for the fiscal fourth quarter. On top of that, LiveRamp offered firm revenue guidance for both the current quarter and full year.
Cytokinetics — The biopharmaceutical company retreated 14.7% in the wake its $500 million common stock offering. JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are sole joint book-running managers.
DuPont de Nemours — Shares climbed 5.3% after the company said it would divide into three separate businesses. One housing industrial solutions operations will become the new DuPont. The one two will center around electronics and water cleaning. Additionally, CEO Ed Bred said he plans to step down to become executive chair of the board on June 1, and will be succeeded by CFO Lori Koch.
Alibaba — Shares slipped 1.5% after Bloomberg News reported that the Chinese tech giant is considering selling convertible bonds to raise $5 billion. Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, said that a bond offering could emerge as soon as this week.
Take-Two Interactive Software — The video game stock rose 2.3% following an upgrade to buy from neutral at Bank of America. The investment firm said in a note to clients that Take-Two’s game pipeline for the year still looks strong despite Grand Theft Auto being slated for fall 2025.
GoodRX — The medicine-focused digital health care platform popped 5.8% on the heels of an RBC upgrade to outperform from sector perform. RBC said the stock has notable growth opportunities.
Hasbro — Shares traded higher by 3% after JPMorgan upgraded Hasbro to overweight from neutral, saying investors are underestimating cost efficiencies and digital gaming forecasts for the toymaker. The Wall Street firm said it expects both will ramp up.
Market News
Nvidia Clears the Way for AI Stocks to Keep Powering Higher
Nvidia Corp. just gave the green light to traders betting that the rally in artificial intelligence computing stocks — not to mention its own — has room to run.
Another estimate-thumping earnings report and forecast from the chipmaker sent its shares up 7% in premarket trading, putting to rest lingering concerns that the spending spree on data-center gear over the past year might be due for a slowdown.
In the US, Nvidia’s results sent a broad swath of hardware stocks rallying in premarket trade. Among the biggest gainers were server makers Super Micro Computer Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc., which climbed more than 5%. Chipmakers Broadcom Inc., Marvell Technology Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. also rose.
Alibaba Is Considering Convertible Bond Sale, Following JD.com
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is considering selling convertible bonds to raise about $5 billion, people familiar with the matter said, following a $1.75 billion offering by rival Chinese online retailer JD.com Inc. this week.
Alibaba has spoken with investment banks about selling bonds that can be converted into US-listed stock, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. The aim is to fund share repurchases and growth, the people said.
An offering could come as soon as this week, though no final decisions have been made, the people said.
TSMC Sees Annual Sales Growth to Reach 10% in Semiconductor Industry
Taiwanese contract chipmaker TSMC, a major supplier to Apple and Nvidia, on Thursday forecast an annual revenue growth of 10% in the global semiconductor industry, excluding memory chips.
"This is a new golden age of opportunity with AI," said senior vice-president Cliff Hou, who was speaking at an event in Hsinchu, where the company is headquartered.
In April, TSMC lowered its outlook for the global semiconductor industry excluding memory to a growth rate of around 10% from a previous forecast of more than 10%.
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