Wall Street waits for Nvidia results; ASX set to rise
Stan Choe
Nvidia is helping lift the divided U.S. stock market on Wednesday ahead of the chip company’s highly anticipated earnings report after trading closes for the day.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7 percent, paring losses from earlier in the week when stocks fluctuated sharply as investors tried to separate potential losers from winners in the AI boom.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 210 points, or 0.4 percent, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1.1 percent. The Australian share market is poised to rise, with futures at 4.44pm AEDT pointing to a 64-point, or 0.7 per cent, rise at the open. The ASX rose 1.2 per cent on Wednesday. Qantas results are the spotlight of the local reporting season. The Australian dollar was trading at 71.18¢ at 4.59am AEDT.
Nvidia was the strongest force lifting Wall Street, rising 2.2 percent despite more stocks falling than advancing stocks in the S&P 500. Analysts expect the company to deliver another stunning earnings report, predicting that Nvidia will say its profits rose nearly 70 percent from a year ago to $37.52 billion. That means it was making more than $400 million a day for the three months through January 25.
Nvidia’s earnings reports have become a bellwether for the market; This wasn’t just because it became Wall Street’s biggest stock, but also because of how influential AI has become on the market’s movements. In recent years, the artificial intelligence craze has helped stocks race to record after record in the hope that it will revolutionize the economy and make it more productive.
But recently, concerns have grown about whether companies like Alphabet and Amazon are spending so much on Nvidia chips and other equipment that they may never recoup their investments through productivity gains in the future. If this leads to a pullback in spending, it will directly impact Nvidia.
Investors have also begun to focus on companies and industries that could be disrupted by AI-powered competitors. This led to a sudden sell-off in stocks seen as potentially under threat, and concerns also spilled over into industries as disparate as software, trucking logistics and legal services.
This is on top of other concerns already weighing on the market, including new tariffs President Donald Trump announced to replace tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court.
“While these concerns are real, we believe investors would be wise to offset them by balancing trends that may be underappreciated in the current cycle of concerning headlines,” said Darrell Cronk, chief investment officer of Wells Fargo’s Wealth and Investment Management.
These include the strong profit growth that US companies have reported so far for the end of 2025. This has helped strengthen some corners of the US stock market that have been overshadowed by the AI craze and Big Tech, including stocks of smaller companies.
Fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant chain Cava Group rose 23.9 percent in the latest quarter after posting better profits and revenue than analysts expected. Its revenue in the fiscal year also exceeded US$1 billion ($1.4 billion) for the first time, up 22.5 percent from the previous year.
Axon Enterprise jumped 21.5 percent after the seller of body cameras with Tasers and AI voice-activated assistants similarly reported more profit and revenue than analysts expected.
They helped offset a 13.7 percent decline for First Solar, which reported weaker profits than analysts expected.
Lowe’s fell 4.5 percent, one of the heaviest in the market even though the home improvement retailer reported higher profits than analysts expected. Investors instead focused on 2026 profit forecasts, which fell short of analysts’ forecasts.
CEO Marvin Ellison said the broader housing market was under pressure, and stocks at rival Home Depot and home builders were also falling.
Indices on stock markets abroad rose in most of Europe and Asia.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 2.2 percent and South Korea’s Kospi index gained 1.9 percent with two big moves.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note remained at 4.04 percent late Tuesday.
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