Article published at 9 a.m. CT, updated at 9:50 a.m. CT
JJ Kinahan is Senior Vice President, Head of Retail Expansion and Alternative Investment Products at Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe).
Key Takeaways:
- Nvidia reports triple-digit increase in sales
- Marvell reports after the bell
- Best Buy shares fall
Technology stocks are lifting the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 Index in early trading as investors finally get off the sidelines following Nvidia’s robust earnings results and forward guidance.
The Nasdaq is up 0.82% and the S&P 500 is advancing by 0.33% after Nvidia’s results lent credence to the deep investments in and remarkable demand for artificial intelligence (AI). The Dow Jones Industrial Average is moving in reverse, off 0.15%.
Nvidia gave Wall Street more than what it wanted when it reported a 106% increase in second-quarter revenue after the bell Wednesday. That was more than double its revenue a year ago and its biggest beat in two years. Investors responded by pulling shares up nearly 6% in early trading, meeting the implied volatility ahead of earnings. Sales results handily outpaced expectations, underscoring the growing need for AI chips and setting the tone for the chip sector overall.
Nvidia is forecasting stronger sales in the current quarter at $108 billion, ahead of Street estimates. The chipmaker is projecting a 70% sales increase in the next fiscal year. Though the AI demand is exceptionally strong, Nvidia noted supply constraints could limit production.
Other tech stocks are gaining too: Marvell is up 3.2%, Seagate by 4.5%, Micron by 3.5%, Applied Materials by 1.3%, Broadcom by 1.6% and Intel by 1.7%.
Marvell opens its books after the bell, giving investors another peek into chip demand. Investors are also looking for more information about the custom chip maker’s two-way deal with Google. The two announced last week that Google’s $12.19 billion investment will help Marvell develop bespoke chips for the communication platform.
Salesforce also handily beat Wall Street’s profit expectations as sales rose 11%. That drove a 21% boost in early trading. Guidance was raised too. AI demand, described as “incredible,” fueled the shares as did a new partnership with Anthropic. The two are creating Claudeforce, combining Anthropic’s Claude intelligence with Salesforce’s total enterprise data, workflow, and applications.
Agentic AI growth is also powering sales for cybersecurity firms Okta and CrowdStrike. Both turned in better-than-expected quarterly results and offered strong guidance. Okta shares are vaulting 20% and CrowdStrike’s advancing by 14.6%.
Shoppers seeking better value drove Dollar General’s same-store sales, a key retail metric, higher in the second quarter as profits rang up above estimates. The deep discounter also hiked its sales guidance, based on “continued momentum” across the business, the retailer said. Shares are up more than 3% in the early going. Dollar Tree also reported robust results, elevated by tariff refunds, but forecast a weaker third quarter. Those shares are tumbling 3.7%.
Best Buy shares are backtracking by 6% despite turning in quarterly results that outperformed Wall Street’s estimates and offered guidance that did too. The slide lower, however, could be tied to profit-taking considering the 54% increase in value since mid-May.
Happy Trading!
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