NVIDIA Earnings Ease Wall Street Heat, European Markets Mixed
Wall Street closed narrowly lower on Wednesday as caution prevailed ahead of Nvidia’s after-hours earnings release, which beat expectations and saw management issue a bullish sales outlook.
AI demand and rising bond yields are pulling risk appetite in opposite directions, leaving global equities mixed. At close, the S&P 500 (-0.02%) and NASDAQ (-0.08%) barely moved while the Dow Jones fell 0.21% as investors took in the slightly stronger-than-expected July Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Index reading and an in-line 2Q26 GDP growth estimate.
Across the pond, European financials provided an offset to broader weakness, lifting the Euro Stoxx 50 by 0.23%, while pressure in software and energy left the FTSE 100 near flat.
In Asian markets on Thursday, China’s slowing industrial profit growth has strengthened expectations for policy support, while elevated US inflation is limiting expectations for rate cuts.
The Hang Seng Index is trading down 0.42%, while the Nikkei 225 is trading down 0.05% as Japanese yields approach multi-year highs. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is set for a mixed open this morning, with global futures trading higher while Asian markets come under pressure.
The local market enters the session after the All Share and Top 40 closed little changed yesterday. Gains in Japanese and Taiwanese technology shares offer some support, with Tencent advancing 0.63%, providing a positive read-through for Naspers and Prosus.
On the resources side, the 1.11% decline in Australia’s Metals and Mining Index points to pressure on diversified miners, while weaker Brent crude may temper energy counters.
Precious metals are more constructive, however, as firmer gold and platinum prices support gold miners and PGM counters, despite softer palladium.
The local bourse closed relatively flat on Wednesday after a bumpy trading session as investors digested the July US Personal Consumption Expenditures price print which was broadly in line with expectations.
The All Share Index and Top 40 ended the session flat at 116 813 points and 109 488 points, respectively. Industrials (+0.44%) outperformed, supported by strong gains in the Consumer Services Index (+5.11%) and Healthcare Index (+1.97%) with Discovery (+4.7%) rallying after releasing a trading statement.
Aspen advanced 4.4% and British American Tobacco gained 2.5%.
Resources (-0.31%) weighed on the market dragged by losses in DRDGold (-2.5%) and Glencore (-1.76%), while Financials (-0.10%) ended marginally lower amid a mixed performance from counters, with gains in Santam (+3.58%) offset by weakness in Nedbank (-3.45%) and Sanlam (-2.0%) despite issuing a trading statement.NVIDIA Tokenised Stock Gains 4% on Q2 Earnings Momentum
