Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang get a pass for an earnings whiff: What Wall Street is saying
Nvidia's (NVDA) first quarter results left much to be desired, but it looks like Wall Street is shaking off the obvious bad news for now.
Shares in the AI chip giant gained 5% before the bell on Thursday, despite the company posting a once-unthinkable quarterly profit miss after the market close on Wednesday.
The magnitude of the earnings whiff — a shortfall of $0.12 per share — was another disappointment.
Nvidia pinned the shortfall on the impact of the US ban on shipments of its H20 chips to China. The company also said it expects to lose out on roughly $8 billion in sales of H20s in the second quarter.
As to why stock investors are looking past the profit miss, analysts point to a few factors.
For one, Nvidia said it would continue to work toward achieving a mid-70% growth profit margin late this year. The number was important to hear for Nvidia bulls, and reflects Nvidia executives' confidence in an efficient ramp-up in production of its Blackwell chip.
And two, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang said global demand for its AI infrastructure products is "incredibly strong."
The chip giant also talked up accelerating AI usage demand at Microsoft (MSFT), OpenAI and other hyperscalers on the earnings call.
"No beat and raise again, but good enough to avoid disappointment," HSBC analyst Ryan Mellor said in a note.
Here's what Wall Street more broadly is saying about Nvidia's quarter. To track post earnings trends on the Street for Nvidia such as sales and earnings revisions, simply head to the 'analysis' section on Yahoo Finance.
Rating: Buy (reiteration)
Price Target: $180 (raised from $150)
"Nvidia continues to emphasize that the Blackwell launch is the fastest product launch in company's history. While management did not disclose the total contribution from the platform in the quarter, comments suggest it was at least $24 billion vs $11 billion last quarter. We view this positively as expectations were for ~$20 billion Blackwell's this quarter. We think Nvidia's Blackwell will continue to see demand running well above supply. In fact, the company's key supplier such as Wistron estimates shipping 100-200 NVL servers per week in the first quarter and now expects a 3x increase by June. We expect Blackwell units to surpass 900K units in the July quarter given its faster-than-expected adoption and deployment."
Rating: Neutral (reiteration)
Price Target: $135 (raised from $120)
"China is, and will remain the largest overhang on Nvidia shares until we get resolution from the Trump administration. It was highlighted that the company will experience 'material adverse impact on [their] business going forward,' if they are unable to sell into the Chinese market at all, even beyond the immediately outlined impact from this quarter and next on H20 bans. Nvidia estimates that the Chinese market represents roughly $50B in total addressable market within the near-future, and without having a product to serve this market, they are handing the entire Chinese opportunity to homegrown manufactures such as Huawei. According to Mr. Huang, China, despite the prevailing insinuation from current policy, has the capabilities to compete head-to-head with the United States in chips and AI."
Rating: Overweight (reiteration)
Price Target: $190 (reiteration)
"We see Nvidia as remaining uniquely positioned to benefit from AI/ML secular data center growth within the industry. With significant barriers to entry created by its CUDA software stack, we see limited competitive risks and expect Nvidia to continue to dominate one of the fastest growing workloads in cloud and enterprise. While early days, Omniverse represents an emerging software subscription revenue stream for metaverse applications that is likely to support further re-rating of the multiple as it grows and scales."
Rating: Buy (reiteration)
Price Target: $180 (reiteration)
"While lost Chinese revenues indeed weigh on Nvidia's long-term outlook, we are encouraged by commentary surrounding long-tailed DC opportunities, in both processors/accelerators and networking infrastructure."
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram and on LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNET
20 minutes ago
- CNET
Microsoft Officially Retires 'Blue Screen of Death' After 40 Years of Frowny-Faces
Another 1980s icon is gone, like Pudding Pops and Benetton sweaters. After 40 years of delivering the tragic news of a PC crash to Windows users, Microsoft's infamous "blue screen of death" will be going away. But not to worry -- a black screen of death will be replacing it, albeit without the sad emoticon face. The infamous "blue screen of death" has been around since the very first version of Windows in 1985. Named for its bright blue color, it's a critical error screen that pops up on computers using the Microsoft Windows operating system when the system crashes. The text on the screen varies, but it's sometimes accompanied by a frowning face made up of a colon and a left parenthesis. :( Microsoft says the new black screen of death, which it calls a "simplified UI for unexpected restarts," will appear in its place starting later this summer on all Windows 11, version 24H2 devices. Meet the new black screen of death. Microsoft The black screen of death will show the stop code and faulty system driver, allowing IT admins to more quickly identify the issue that caused the crash, rather than having to use debugging software. It's not just a cosmetic change, it's part of Microsoft's Windows Resiliency Initiative, which is designed to increase resiliency and security in Windows systems. In a blog post on Thursday, Microsoft said that the new black screen of death is part of "streamlining the unexpected restart experience" and aiding in "quick machine recovery." The aim is to reduce recovery time to 2 seconds following a PC crash. The Windows Resiliency Initiative was launched following 2024's CrowdStrike outage, which caused systems to go offline for numerous businesses, airports and governmental services. More than 8 million devices were impacted. Over 40 years, the blue screen of death worked its way into pop culture, with a subreddit devoted to it, and T-shirts and other items bearing its image.
UPI
27 minutes ago
- UPI
Amid declining EV sales, Tesla fires vice president of manufacturing
A row of Teslas charge at a Tesla power station (2018). The company announced on Thursday that it sold fewer cars in 2024 than it did in 2023, the first time sales dropped since Tesla began mass producing EVs. Its profits fell 71% in the first quarter of 2025, too. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo June 26 (UPI) -- Tesla CEO Elon Musk has fired the carmaker's vice president of manufacturing and operations following a falloff in auto sales in the nation's largest markets this year. Omead Afshar oversaw more than a half dozen upper-level employees in the company, including Troy Jones, Tesla's vice president of sales in North America, and Joe Ward, vice president of the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The firing was first reported by Bloomberg News. Afshar is the second high-level employee to leave the company recently. His termination follows the resignation of Milan Kovac, who was the company's head of its Optimus humanoid robotics program. Kovac said in a post on X that he was leaving Tesla to spend more time with his family. Musk later thanked Kovac publicly for his time with the company. In 2022, Afshar was the subject of an internal investigation at Tesla that focused on his involvement in trying to secure construction materials for a secret project for Musk that included hard-to-get glass. Prior to his job as Tesla vice president, Afshar worked for SpaceX, Musk's aerospace company. Afshar's X account, which had not been updated, said he still works for Tesla, and he praised Musk for his leadership and work ethic following the launch of the company's Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas. "Thank you, Elon, for pushing us all," Afshar wrote. Tesla's stock price has dropped 19% this year, and took an especially hard hit following Musk's association with President Donald Trump, who appointed Musk to oversee the Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE took a broad and aggressive approach to eliminating federal employees, downsizing federal agencies and ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs at some of the nation's largest companies and universities. The company sold fewer cars in 2024 than it did in 2023, the first time sales dropped since Tesla began mass producing EVs. Its profits fell 71% in the first quarter of 2025. European sales dropped 28%, and dropped for a fifth straight month in May. The European Automobile Manufacturers Association said buyers are shifting to cheaper Chinese models.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Stock market today: Stock rally leaves S&P 500, Nasdaq within inches of records, Dow gains 400 points
US stocks climbed just points away from record highs on Thursday as the major indexes continued a furious rally. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) came just shy from its February record of 6,144.15 to gain 0.8%, closing the session at 6,141.02. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) moved up more than 1%, finishing within a handful of points from its own record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) also roughly 400 points or 0.9%. Nvidia stock (NVDA) was up 1%, building on its record high on Wednesday. President Trump appeared to get closer to naming his replacement for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Trump's frustration with Powell's "wait and see" approach to interest rates has led him to consider announcing his pick to succeed the Fed chair in September or October, The Wall Street Journal reported. Markets view that as a signal that early US rate cuts have become more likely, given Trump has criticized the Fed chair for not lowering borrowing costs. Rate cut bets have also intensified as the labor market shows continued signs of weakness. Meanwhile, stocks also gained on Thursday as the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt remarked that Trump's July 9 deadline "is not critical" for countries to strike trade deals with the US to avoid reciprocal tariffs. Earlier, the White House's chief economist, Stephen Miran, told Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi that Trump would likely extend the deadline for countries "negotiating in good faith." The dollar (DX=F) retreated to its lowest level since April 2022, already under pressure from concerns about tariff impacts and a looming US default. Treasury yields also declined, with the benchmark 10-year (^TNX) trading around 4.25%. Investors got a snapshot of the health of the economy in a clutch of data Thursday. The highlights: The US economy shrank 0.5% in the first quarter, according to the government's final estimate, worse than previously thought. Jobless claims rose, with continuing claims rising to their highest level since late 2021. The main event for Wall Street to end the week lands Friday with the release of the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report. Investors will be watching closely for any signs that Trump's tariffs pushed prices higher. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) inched closer to a record close on Thursday as investors increasingly see a Fed rate cut in the cards as soon as July. The broad-based index added about 0.8%, coming just shy of its February record close. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) added 0.9% or 400 points. The Nasdaq Composite also gained nearly 1%, buoyed by shares of AI chip giant Nvidia (NVDA), which closed at another record high on Thursday. Investors are growing increasingly confident that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by the end of the year, as labor market data has shown signs of cooling in recent weeks. Data from the Department of Labor released Thursday showed 1.974 million continuing claims were filed in the week ending June 14, up from 1.937 million the week prior and the highest level seen since November 2021. Economists see an increase in continuing claims as a sign that those out of work are taking longer to find new jobs. "Employment risks are trending higher," Jefferies US economist Thomas Simons wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. Elsewhere in economic data on Thursday, the third estimate for gross domestic product for the first quarter showed that US economic growth contracted at an annualized rate of 0.5%, more than the 0.2% previously reported. Following Thursday's data releases, markets were pricing in a 27% chance the central bank cuts interest rates at its next meeting in late July, up from a 12.5% chance seen last week, per the CME FedWatch Tool. Odds of a cut by the end of September have also surged, with markets now pricing in a 92% chance the central bank will have lowered rates by then, up from a 64% chance seen just a week ago. Read more here. Battery developer QuantumScape (QS) soared over 29% Thursday after rising roughly 31% the prior day. The gains come after the company announced a breakthrough in its process for manufacturing solid-state lithium-metal batteries. Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian reports: Read more here. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Nvidia-backed (NVDA) AI cloud firm CoreWeave (CRWV) is in talks to acquire Core Scientific (CORZ), an infrastructure provider for AI data centers and bitcoin mining, sending shares of Core Scientific up more than 28% in afternoon trading. CoreWeave has tried to acquire the bitcoin miner and data center operator before — as recently as last year. But Core Scientific said last June that it rejected the "unsolicited" proposal to purchase it for $5.75 per share (valuing the company at over $1 billion). Core Scientific had a market cap of more than $4.5 billion as of Thursday. Core Scientific, which went bankrupt in 2022 but emerged after restructuring in 2024, already does business with CoreWeave. Last year, the two firms announced a "series of 12-year contracts" for Core Scientific to host CoreWeave's Nvidia GPUs at its data centers. CoreWeave is one of the largest holders of Nvidia's (NVDA) graphics processing units and rents its data center capacity to Big Tech firms such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META), as their own stores of GPUs haven't been sufficient to power their AI ambitions. CoreWeave's business model has drawn skepticism from some on Wall Street due to its massive pile of debt borrowed at high interest rates. Mortgage rates dropped for the fourth consecutive week as geopolitical tensions eased and Treasury yields fell, Yahoo Finance's Claire Boston reports. Boston wrote: Read the full story here. Circle shares rose over 12% Thursday after a two-day plummet as the USDC (USDC-USD) stablecoin issuer is expected to face rising competition. Circle stock fell more than 15% Tuesday and nearly 11% Wednesday. That drop came after a stunning rally last week fueled by investor optimism over stablecoin regulation and adoption. The US Senate passed the GENIUS Act last week — legislation that would establish a federal framework for digital tokens backed by assets such as the US dollar. But that regulation could also accelerate competition in the space, Ferré reported. Circle's gain on Thursday helped recover losses earlier in the week. Shares traded at nearly $224 by midday, up 620% for the month but below the stock's record close above $263 on Monday. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Diksha Gera wrote in a note Thursday that Circle's surge since its IPO "signals strong investor enthusiasm and growing institutional appetite for stablecoins." Gera added that blockchain-based tokens tied to currencies "are moving from the fringe into the financial mainstream." President Trump's top economist told Yahoo Finance that he doesn't expect the aggregate tariff rate to fall materially below 10% and that the White House may extend the negotiating period for some countries engaging in trade talks. "My expectation would be that for countries that are negotiating in good faith and making progress, that rolling back the deadline makes sense," Council of Economic Advisers chairman Stephen Miran said on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid. "I mean, you don't blow up a deal that's that's in process and making really good faith, sincere, authentic progress by dropping a tariff bomb in it." In recent weeks, President Trump and administration officials have signaled some leeway in the July 9 tariff deadline as investors remain on watch for the return of "Liberation Day" tariffs that roiled markets. All three major averages were higher in afternoon trading, with the S&P 500 (^GSPC), Dow Jones (^DJI), and Nasdaq (^IXIC) up around 0.7%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was trading just a stone's throw away on Thursday from its record close from February, as well as its intraday all-time high. The broad-based index rose 0.6% to hover near 6,130 by around 11:40 a.m. ET. The S&P 500 last touched an intraday record of 6,147.43 in February, along with a record close of 6,144.15. Industrials (XLI), Communications Services (XLY) and Tech (XLK) have all led the overall market higher this year. AI chip giant Nvidia (NVDA) stock continued to tick higher Thursday, rising roughly 1after closing at a record in the prior session. Nvidia (NVDA) stock continued to tick higher Thursday, rising more than 1% in early trading after notching a record high above $154 the prior day. The gains come amid bullish predictions for the AI chip market on Wall Street. Loop Capital analyst Ananda Baruah on Wednesday raised his price target on Nvidia shares to $250, the highest of Wall Street analysts tracked by Yahoo Finance, implying that the AI chipmaker's market capitalization could soar to $6 trillion. Baruah expects the market for AI chips to grow to $2 trillion in 2028. Baruah said that "we are entering the next 'Golden Wave' of Gen AI adoption and NVDA is at the front-end of another material leg of stronger than anticipated demand." Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya wrote in his own note to investors Wednesday that he forecasts demand for AI chips reaching a more modest but still impressive $650 billion by 2030, up from $201 billion in 2025. Arya said Nvidia is set to be a "key beneficiary" as it's "still far ahead" of new entrants in the sector. Read more here. Yahoo Finance's Francisco Velasquez reports: Read more here. US stocks climbed on Thursday amid growing bets on interest rate cuts as President Trump appeared to get closer to naming his replacement for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The Nasdaq Composite climbed about 0.3%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) added about 0.4%, with its first record close since February in sight. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) also rose 0.4%, or around 200 points. Nvidia (NVDA) stock was up marginally and on track to build on its record high from Wednesday. Walgreens Boots Alliance stock (WBA) gained less than 1% in premarket trading on Thursday after the pharmacy chain beat earnings estimates in its fiscal third quarter. Store closures and cost-cutting efforts boosted Walgreens' profits to $0.38 per share, ahead of Bloomberg-compiled estimates of $0.31 per share. Walgreens reported revenue of $39 billion, beating estimates for $36.8 billion. CEO Tim Wentworth noted that the company remains focused on its turnaround plan. Walgreens is being taken private by Sycamore Partners in a $10 billion deal expected to close later this year. Read more here. Weekly claims for unemployment benefits slipped from their highest level in eight months during the first full week of June while the number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance on an ongoing basis reached the highest level since November 2021. Data from the Department of Labor released Thursday showed 1.974 million continuing claims were filed in the week ending June 14, up from 1.937 million the week prior and the highest level seen since November 2021. Economists see an increase in continuing claims as a sign that those out of work are taking longer to find new jobs. The data release also showed 236,000 initial jobless claims were filed in the week ending June 21, below 246,000 the week prior. The data's release comes as the US labor market continues to show signs of slowing. Read more: What are jobless claims, and why do they matter? Platinum (PL=F) futures surged to their highest level since 2014, rising more than 5% at one point to as high as $1,411.80 per ounce. Year to date, platinum futures have climbed around 56% as supply concerns have driven the metal higher. Prices for palladium (PA=F), which is sometimes used as an alternative to platinum, also increased more than 3% to trade $1,107.50. Bloomberg reports: Gold (GC=F) futures also opened higher after nearing record highs on June 13 and June 16 as investors wait for more clarity on whether the Israel-Iran ceasefire will hold. Read more here. Yahoo Finance's Hamza Shaban writes in today's Morning Brief: Read more here. Nike (NKE) is set to report its fiscal fourth quarter earnings after market close today, and Wall Street is bracing for more poor results. Yahoo Finance's Brooke DiPalma reports: Read more here. Economic data: First quarter GDP; First quarter personal consumption; Initial jobless claims (week ended June 21); Pending home sales (May); Durable goods orders (May preliminary); Wholesale inventories (May preliminary) Earnings: McCormick (MKC), Nike (NKE), Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning: Meta's quest to dominate the AI world Trump made a final case for his big tax bill. Economists aren't buying it. Nike earnings after the bell: Wall Street is hoping for progress Nvidia leaps to new high in remarkable turnaround Dollar slides as Trump reportedly eyes replacing Powell early China tech giants are ramping up M&A with Beijing's blessing Here are some top stocks trending on Yahoo Finance in premarket trading: Nvidia (NVDA) stock was up 1% in premarket trading on Thursday after notching a new record high of $154.31 on Wednesday. Micron (MU) stock was up over 2% before the bell on Thursday after delivering third-quarter results and fourth-quarter forecasts that exceeded estimates. But despite the upbeat results, Wall Street was not impressed. Coinbase (COIN) rose 1% in premarket trading after touching a 52-week high the day before. Bernstein analysts dubbed the cryptocurrency platform a "one-stop Amazon" of crypto services. The dollar (DX=F) has hit a low against the euro that hasn't been reached in over three and a half years. Concerns over Trump's tariff impacts on US economic stability, combined with a loss of trust over the ability of the Fed to remain independent, have consistently applied downward pressure on the greenback. Reuters reports: Read more here. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) inched closer to a record close on Thursday as investors increasingly see a Fed rate cut in the cards as soon as July. The broad-based index added about 0.8%, coming just shy of its February record close. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) added 0.9% or 400 points. The Nasdaq Composite also gained nearly 1%, buoyed by shares of AI chip giant Nvidia (NVDA), which closed at another record high on Thursday. Investors are growing increasingly confident that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by the end of the year, as labor market data has shown signs of cooling in recent weeks. Data from the Department of Labor released Thursday showed 1.974 million continuing claims were filed in the week ending June 14, up from 1.937 million the week prior and the highest level seen since November 2021. Economists see an increase in continuing claims as a sign that those out of work are taking longer to find new jobs. "Employment risks are trending higher," Jefferies US economist Thomas Simons wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. Elsewhere in economic data on Thursday, the third estimate for gross domestic product for the first quarter showed that US economic growth contracted at an annualized rate of 0.5%, more than the 0.2% previously reported. Following Thursday's data releases, markets were pricing in a 27% chance the central bank cuts interest rates at its next meeting in late July, up from a 12.5% chance seen last week, per the CME FedWatch Tool. Odds of a cut by the end of September have also surged, with markets now pricing in a 92% chance the central bank will have lowered rates by then, up from a 64% chance seen just a week ago. Read more here. Battery developer QuantumScape (QS) soared over 29% Thursday after rising roughly 31% the prior day. The gains come after the company announced a breakthrough in its process for manufacturing solid-state lithium-metal batteries. Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian reports: Read more here. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Nvidia-backed (NVDA) AI cloud firm CoreWeave (CRWV) is in talks to acquire Core Scientific (CORZ), an infrastructure provider for AI data centers and bitcoin mining, sending shares of Core Scientific up more than 28% in afternoon trading. CoreWeave has tried to acquire the bitcoin miner and data center operator before — as recently as last year. But Core Scientific said last June that it rejected the "unsolicited" proposal to purchase it for $5.75 per share (valuing the company at over $1 billion). Core Scientific had a market cap of more than $4.5 billion as of Thursday. Core Scientific, which went bankrupt in 2022 but emerged after restructuring in 2024, already does business with CoreWeave. Last year, the two firms announced a "series of 12-year contracts" for Core Scientific to host CoreWeave's Nvidia GPUs at its data centers. CoreWeave is one of the largest holders of Nvidia's (NVDA) graphics processing units and rents its data center capacity to Big Tech firms such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META), as their own stores of GPUs haven't been sufficient to power their AI ambitions. CoreWeave's business model has drawn skepticism from some on Wall Street due to its massive pile of debt borrowed at high interest rates. Mortgage rates dropped for the fourth consecutive week as geopolitical tensions eased and Treasury yields fell, Yahoo Finance's Claire Boston reports. Boston wrote: Read the full story here. Circle shares rose over 12% Thursday after a two-day plummet as the USDC (USDC-USD) stablecoin issuer is expected to face rising competition. Circle stock fell more than 15% Tuesday and nearly 11% Wednesday. That drop came after a stunning rally last week fueled by investor optimism over stablecoin regulation and adoption. The US Senate passed the GENIUS Act last week — legislation that would establish a federal framework for digital tokens backed by assets such as the US dollar. But that regulation could also accelerate competition in the space, Ferré reported. Circle's gain on Thursday helped recover losses earlier in the week. Shares traded at nearly $224 by midday, up 620% for the month but below the stock's record close above $263 on Monday. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Diksha Gera wrote in a note Thursday that Circle's surge since its IPO "signals strong investor enthusiasm and growing institutional appetite for stablecoins." Gera added that blockchain-based tokens tied to currencies "are moving from the fringe into the financial mainstream." President Trump's top economist told Yahoo Finance that he doesn't expect the aggregate tariff rate to fall materially below 10% and that the White House may extend the negotiating period for some countries engaging in trade talks. "My expectation would be that for countries that are negotiating in good faith and making progress, that rolling back the deadline makes sense," Council of Economic Advisers chairman Stephen Miran said on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid. "I mean, you don't blow up a deal that's that's in process and making really good faith, sincere, authentic progress by dropping a tariff bomb in it." In recent weeks, President Trump and administration officials have signaled some leeway in the July 9 tariff deadline as investors remain on watch for the return of "Liberation Day" tariffs that roiled markets. All three major averages were higher in afternoon trading, with the S&P 500 (^GSPC), Dow Jones (^DJI), and Nasdaq (^IXIC) up around 0.7%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was trading just a stone's throw away on Thursday from its record close from February, as well as its intraday all-time high. The broad-based index rose 0.6% to hover near 6,130 by around 11:40 a.m. ET. The S&P 500 last touched an intraday record of 6,147.43 in February, along with a record close of 6,144.15. Industrials (XLI), Communications Services (XLY) and Tech (XLK) have all led the overall market higher this year. AI chip giant Nvidia (NVDA) stock continued to tick higher Thursday, rising roughly 1after closing at a record in the prior session. Nvidia (NVDA) stock continued to tick higher Thursday, rising more than 1% in early trading after notching a record high above $154 the prior day. The gains come amid bullish predictions for the AI chip market on Wall Street. Loop Capital analyst Ananda Baruah on Wednesday raised his price target on Nvidia shares to $250, the highest of Wall Street analysts tracked by Yahoo Finance, implying that the AI chipmaker's market capitalization could soar to $6 trillion. Baruah expects the market for AI chips to grow to $2 trillion in 2028. Baruah said that "we are entering the next 'Golden Wave' of Gen AI adoption and NVDA is at the front-end of another material leg of stronger than anticipated demand." Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya wrote in his own note to investors Wednesday that he forecasts demand for AI chips reaching a more modest but still impressive $650 billion by 2030, up from $201 billion in 2025. Arya said Nvidia is set to be a "key beneficiary" as it's "still far ahead" of new entrants in the sector. Read more here. Yahoo Finance's Francisco Velasquez reports: Read more here. US stocks climbed on Thursday amid growing bets on interest rate cuts as President Trump appeared to get closer to naming his replacement for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The Nasdaq Composite climbed about 0.3%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) added about 0.4%, with its first record close since February in sight. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) also rose 0.4%, or around 200 points. Nvidia (NVDA) stock was up marginally and on track to build on its record high from Wednesday. Walgreens Boots Alliance stock (WBA) gained less than 1% in premarket trading on Thursday after the pharmacy chain beat earnings estimates in its fiscal third quarter. Store closures and cost-cutting efforts boosted Walgreens' profits to $0.38 per share, ahead of Bloomberg-compiled estimates of $0.31 per share. Walgreens reported revenue of $39 billion, beating estimates for $36.8 billion. CEO Tim Wentworth noted that the company remains focused on its turnaround plan. Walgreens is being taken private by Sycamore Partners in a $10 billion deal expected to close later this year. Read more here. Weekly claims for unemployment benefits slipped from their highest level in eight months during the first full week of June while the number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance on an ongoing basis reached the highest level since November 2021. Data from the Department of Labor released Thursday showed 1.974 million continuing claims were filed in the week ending June 14, up from 1.937 million the week prior and the highest level seen since November 2021. Economists see an increase in continuing claims as a sign that those out of work are taking longer to find new jobs. The data release also showed 236,000 initial jobless claims were filed in the week ending June 21, below 246,000 the week prior. The data's release comes as the US labor market continues to show signs of slowing. Read more: What are jobless claims, and why do they matter? Platinum (PL=F) futures surged to their highest level since 2014, rising more than 5% at one point to as high as $1,411.80 per ounce. Year to date, platinum futures have climbed around 56% as supply concerns have driven the metal higher. Prices for palladium (PA=F), which is sometimes used as an alternative to platinum, also increased more than 3% to trade $1,107.50. Bloomberg reports: Gold (GC=F) futures also opened higher after nearing record highs on June 13 and June 16 as investors wait for more clarity on whether the Israel-Iran ceasefire will hold. Read more here. Yahoo Finance's Hamza Shaban writes in today's Morning Brief: Read more here. Nike (NKE) is set to report its fiscal fourth quarter earnings after market close today, and Wall Street is bracing for more poor results. Yahoo Finance's Brooke DiPalma reports: Read more here. Economic data: First quarter GDP; First quarter personal consumption; Initial jobless claims (week ended June 21); Pending home sales (May); Durable goods orders (May preliminary); Wholesale inventories (May preliminary) Earnings: McCormick (MKC), Nike (NKE), Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning: Meta's quest to dominate the AI world Trump made a final case for his big tax bill. Economists aren't buying it. Nike earnings after the bell: Wall Street is hoping for progress Nvidia leaps to new high in remarkable turnaround Dollar slides as Trump reportedly eyes replacing Powell early China tech giants are ramping up M&A with Beijing's blessing Here are some top stocks trending on Yahoo Finance in premarket trading: Nvidia (NVDA) stock was up 1% in premarket trading on Thursday after notching a new record high of $154.31 on Wednesday. Micron (MU) stock was up over 2% before the bell on Thursday after delivering third-quarter results and fourth-quarter forecasts that exceeded estimates. But despite the upbeat results, Wall Street was not impressed. Coinbase (COIN) rose 1% in premarket trading after touching a 52-week high the day before. Bernstein analysts dubbed the cryptocurrency platform a "one-stop Amazon" of crypto services. The dollar (DX=F) has hit a low against the euro that hasn't been reached in over three and a half years. Concerns over Trump's tariff impacts on US economic stability, combined with a loss of trust over the ability of the Fed to remain independent, have consistently applied downward pressure on the greenback. Reuters reports: Read more here. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
