Wall Street braces for Nvidia earnings to shed light on AI bets

Stocks on Wall Street were mixed ahead of Nvidia’s quarterly earnings, which are being seen as an inflexion point on whether lofty valuations have got ahead of themselves when it comes to the nascent artificial intelligence industry.

Tech companies clawed back some of their recent losses, with Alphabet among those on the green side of the ledger, with the Google parent making its own AI statement this week with the launch of Gemini 3, the latest update of its large language model.

The kiwi dollar fell below 56 US cents for the first time in seven months as traders dial back their bets on the Federal Reserve cutting its benchmark interest rate next month, while Bitcoin dropped below US$90,000.

And local attention will turn to earnings from Goodman Property Trust and Turners Automotive Group and a2 Milk Co’s annual meeting.

A little longer

Nvidia was up 2.1% in late trading ahead of its quarterly earnings, which is expected to give a snapshot on demand for chips driving the AI boom and whether valuations have got ahead of themselves. Traders are positioning themselves for an 8% swing in the share price, with data centre sales forecast to jump 59% to US$49 billion.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 0.3% in late trading, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.1% ahead of the result.

Alphabet climbed 3% and is on the cusp of passing Microsoft’s market value, having got a boost when Berkshire Hathaway reported it took a stake of Google’s parent and after releasing the latest update of its AI large language model, Gemini 3.

Meanwhile, the greenback pushed higher after the Bureau of Labor Statistics said it won’t publish a standalone October jobs report – which had been delayed by the government shutdown – and will instead release parts of that in the December publication.

The kiwi dollar dropped to a seven-month low, trading at 55.95 US cents at 7am in Auckland from 56.29 cents yesterday, and declined to 86.61 Australian cents from 86.90 cents.

“All gains through 2025 have now been completely eroded, with the NZ dollar’s fall over the second half of the year, unwinding the gains over the first half,” Bank of New Zealand senior markets strategist Jason Wong said in a note. “We considered 56 US cents as a short-term support level, although 55 cents is the more critical support level to watch.”

Not so risky

The dwindling risk appetite has been weighing on cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin falling 3.6% to US$89,429.

Meanwhile, crypto exchange Kraken has filed confidentially for an initial public offering in the US, having recently raised US$800 million valuing the firm at US$20 billion.

Stock markets across the Atlantic were weaker ahead of the Nvidia result, with the UK’s FTSE 100 down 0.5%, Germany’s DAX 30 declining 0.1% and France’s CAC 40 slipping 0.2%, with defence stocks such as Rheinmetall, BAE Systems, Leonardo and Saab among the biggest decliners amid signs of a fresh push to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Australian futures are pointing to a 0.4% gain for the S&P/ASX 200 index when trading opens across the Tasman, which would snap two days of declines. New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 index has also dropped in the past two sessions.

Locally, Goodman Property Trust, Turners Automotive Group, AFT Pharmaceuticals and My Food Bag are scheduled to report earnings, while a2 Milk Co and tech minnow Solutions Dynamics are holding their annual meetings.

Reporting by Paul McBeth. Image from Solen Feyissa on Unsplash.