S&P 500 and Nasdaq Inch Higher After Nvidia Sustained Quarterly Revenue and Earnings Growth

Barry Adams
21 Nov, 2024
New York City

Wall Street indexes edged higher as investors reviewed the widely anticipated quarterly results from Nvidia Corp. 

The S&P 500 index edged up 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.1% after Nvidia reported a sharp jump in revenue and earnings driven by a strong demand for its artificial intelligence chips. 

Revenue and earnings in the third quarter doubled as demand from large customers for data center chips remained elevated for the third year in a row. 

The company offered a strong revenue outlook for the current quarter, but growth is expected to slow in the next year. 

Seasonally adjusted initial weekly jobless claims in the week ending November 16 were 213,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level of 219,000, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday. 

Continuing jobless claims, which lag by one week, increased by 36,000 to 1.908 million, the highest in three years. 

 

U.S. Indexes and Treasury Yields

The S&P 500 index increased 0.3% to $5,958.05, the Nasdaq Composite added 0.2% to 19,136.21, and the Russell 2000 index inched higher 0.1% to 2,347.09. 

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes edged higher to 4.32%, 10-year Treasury notes inched up to 4.40%, and 30-year Treasury bonds decreased to 4.59%.

WTI crude oil increased $1.53 to $70.27 a barrel, and natural gas prices edged up 20 cents to $3.40 a thermal unit.

Gold increased by $12.44 to $2,664.85 an ounce, and silver increased by $0.16 to $31.07.

The dollar index, which weighs the US currency against a basket of foreign currencies, edged lower to 106.63.

 

U.S. Stock Movers 

Nvidia declined 0.9% to $144.62 after the advanced chip maker reported strong quarterly results but fell short of the highest revenue expectations.

Revenue in the fiscal third quarter increased 94% to $35.1 billion from $18.1 billion, net income soared 109% to $19.3 billion from $9.2 billion, and diluted earnings per share jumped 111% to 78 cents from 37 cents a year earlier. 

Nvidia forecast fiscal fourth quarter revenue of $37.5 billion, with a band of 2%, and GAAP gross margin of 73% and non-GAAP gross margin of 73.5%. 

Data center revenue increased to $30.8 billion, a jump of 17% from the previous quarter and a rise of 112% from a year ago. 

Snowflake soared 23.2% to $159.30 after the data analytics company beat earnings expectations for the third quarter. 

Revenue in the quarter increased 28% to $942.1 million from $734.1 million, net loss attributable to shareholders expanded to $324.2 million from $214.2 million, and diluted net loss per share expanded to 98 cents from 65 cents a year ago. 

The company guided product revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter to increase 23% to between $906 million and $911 million, and for the full year to increase 29% to $3.4 billion. 

Investors are awaiting the release of quarterly results from Intuit and Gap Inc. after the market closes.