By Thomas BIANCATO
Published on Thu, 28.Aug.2025
Nvidia sales set a fresh record on Wednesday, as the world’s most valuable public company continued to capitalize on strong demand for AI computing, but the company’s lackluster outlook stoked jitters about future demand, sending its share price lower. Sales in the July quarter hit $46.7 billion, roughly in line with analyst estimates. Revenue from the important data-center segment, which includes sales of the company’s most powerful chips, used to train and refine artificial-intelligence models, rose 56% to $41.1 billion, but came in slightly lower than the $41.3 billion analysts had expected. Quarterly net income was $26.4 billion, 59% higher than a year earlier. The company predicted revenue of $54 billion for the third quarter, slightly higher than consensus estimates by Wall Street analysts. After several blockbuster quarters, the revenue projection was seen as underwhelming and stoked worries that growth in demand for AI chips might be hitting a plateau. Nvidia shares fell nearly 3% in aftermarket trading, likely because of the lukewarm revenue outlook and the narrow miss of revenue forecasts for the company’s data-center business. It was the second consecutive quarterly miss for the segment, which accounts for 89% of the company’s sales. But the last report came before Nvidia detailed the size of its lost China revenue, so analysts hadn’t yet adjusted their targets to account for that.
The Swiss market closed modestly higher on Wednesday after staying firm right through the day's session, thanks to fairly strong buying at several counters. The benchmark SMI closed up by 46.23 points or 0.38% at 12,207.12. The index moved between 12,166.23 and 12,226.36 during the session. Swatch Group climbed about 6.3%, and Richemont firmed up by nearly 3.5%. Roche Holding and Sandoz Group gained 1.3% and 1.2%, respectively. Novartis, Lindt & Spruengli, Straumann Holding, Partners Group, Sonova, Kuehne + Nagel, SGS and Alcon advanced by 0.4 to 0.7%. SIG Group closed down by about 4.2%. Adecco ended 1.6% down, while VAT Group and Lonza Group ended lower by about 1%. Schindler Ps, Givaudan, Geberit, Sika, ABB and Nestle closed moderately lower. In economic news, a report from UBS & CFA Society said the Swiss investors' sentiment index plunged 56.2 points month-on-month to -53.8 in August 2025, signaling renewed pessimism after a brief positive reading of 2.4 in July. This is the weakest level since November 2022. Meanwhile, the current conditions index remained neutral at 0, down from 9.5 in the previous month, reflecting subdued assessments of the present economic situation.
Europe
European stocks turned in a mixed performance on Wednesday as investors largely stayed cautious, looking ahead to chipmaker Nvidia's quarterly earnings announcement, and continuing to assess the political situation in France. French Prime Minister François Bayrou urged lawmakers on Tuesday to choose between 'chaos' and 'responsibility,' when the confidence vote takes place on September 8. A survey showing weak German consumer confidence also weighed on sentiment. German consumer confidence is set to continue to fall in September as rising fear of job losses weighed on purchase decisions and damped hopes of robust economic recovery, a closely watched survey showed. The pan European Stoxx 600 gained 0.1%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX closed lower by 0.11% and 0.44%, respectively. France's CAC 40 climbed 0.44%, and Switzerland's SMI ended higher by 0.38%. Among other markets in Europe, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed weak. Finland, Netherlands and Russia ended higher, while Austria, Belgium and Czech Republic closed flat. In the UK market, JD Sports Fashion gained more than 3.5% after the company's board announced a share buyback programme of 100 million pounds. JD Sports Fahsion reported that its second quarter Group like-for-like sales were down 3.0%. EasyJet closed down by 3.1%.
United States
After ending yesterday's choppy trading session mostly higher, stocks saw some further upside during trading on Wednesday. While buying interest was somewhat subdued, the S&P 500 managed to reach a new record closing high. The major averages all posted modest gains on the day. The Dow rose 147.16 points or 0.3 percent to 45,565.23, the Nasdaq edged up 45.87 points or 0.2 percent at 21,590.14 and the S&P 500 crept up 15.46 points or 0.2 percent to 6,481.40. The modest strength on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to the release of highly-anticipated earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA). On Friday, the Commerce Department is due to release its report on personal income and spending in the month of July, which includes the Federal Reserve's preferred readings on consumer price inflation. The report, which is expected to show an uptick in the annual rate of core consumer price growth to 2.9 percent in July from 2.8 percent in June, could impact the outlook for interest rates. Energy stocks turned in a strong performance on the day amid a sharp increase by the price of crude oil, with the Philadelphia Oil Service Index jumping by 2.1 percent and the NYSE Arca Oil Index climbing by 1.7 percent. Considerable strength was also visible among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 1.3 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index. Software and telecom stocks also saw some strength on the day, while brokerage stocks moved to the downside.
Asia
Asian stock exchanges are mostly on the rise on Thursday. The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo rose by 0.7 per cent and the Kospi in Seoul by 0.5 per cent. Technology stocks are predominantly in demand: SK Hynix and Softbank gain 2.6 per cent and 3.1 per cent respectively.
Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries moved mostly higher over the course of the trading session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dipped by 2.0 basis points to 4.238 percent.
Analysis
Bank of America raises Zurich Airport to CHF 263 (235) – Buy
UBS lowers Comet to Neutral (Buy) – CHF 194 (272)
Morgan Stanley lowers Veolia to Equalweight (Overweight) – EUR 32 (36)