Stock market today: Global shares mostly slip despite Nvidia's solid earnings report

[November 21, 2024]  By YURI KAGEYAMA

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares were mostly lower on Thursday as markets digested a strong profit report from U.S. chipmaker Nvidia.

Nvidia again topped analysts' expectations. But technology shares in Tokyo declined as they had already risen earlier in anticipation. In after-hours trading, Nvidia’s shares lost 2.5%.

France's CAC 40 lost nearly 0.2% in early trading to 7,186.09, while Germany's DAX rose nearly 0.2% to 19,030.65. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.2% to 8,104.43. U.S. shares were set to drift lower with Dow futures falling less than 0.1% to 43,502.00. S&P 500 futures fell nearly 0.3% to 5,922.75.

In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.9% to finish at 38,026.17, as shares in semiconductor equipment maker Advantest Corp. dropped 1.6%. Chip maker Tokyo Electron shed 0.4%.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.1% to 8,323.00. South Korea's Kospi declined less than 0.1% to 2,480.63. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 0.5% to 19,601.11, while the Shanghai Composite was little changed, rising less than 0.1% to 3,370.40.

Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, noted the market reaction to Nvidia's results was muted, partly because of the positioning that happened before the release. Its long-term prospects remain complex, he added.

“The bigger question remains: where exactly is the bar for Nvidia now?” Innes said. “This push to integrate AI into every corner of the corporate world risks backfiring when the technology is forced into roles it isn’t fully equipped to handle.”

Trading in the options market suggested Nvidia’s profit report was the most anticipated event left in 2024, more than even the Federal Reserve’s upcoming meeting on interest rates, according to Barclays Capital.

A woman walks by a monitor showing Japan's foreign exchange rate against the U.S. dollar at a securities firm in Tokyo, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Nvidia has grown into a nearly $3.6 trillion behemoth because of nearly insatiable demand for its chips used in artificial-intelligence technology.

It’s grown so fast, with its stock nearly tripling for the year so far, that pressure has grown for it to show it can keep leapfrogging past analysts’ already high expectations.

Hints about how U.S. consumers are doing are under particular scrutiny, since their spending will help determine if the U.S. economy will continue growing and avoid a recession. Shoppers are contending with high prices across the economy and still-high interest rates.

Financial markets are also still absorbing the impacts of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, including expectations that Trump’s policies will drive faster U.S. economic growth and inflation.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude gained 73 cents to $69.48 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 68 cents to $73.49 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 154.83 Japanese yen from 155.31 yen. The euro cost $1.0541, inching down from $1.0546.
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AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.

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