Nvidia had a pleasant surprise in store for investors who thought the artificial-intelligence boom must be on the verge of leveling off. Shares in the chip maker gained 5.5% Wednesday after Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress, on a call to discuss the company’s second-quarter earnings, said to expect 70% revenue growth in the company’s 2028 fiscal year. That is significantly better than the 45% growth that analysts polled by FactSet had predicted. Paired with the chip giant’s quarter of blowout earnings that also came in well ahead of estimates, the forecast helped calm rising worries throughout the market over dizzying spending on AI infrastructure and the degree to which Nvidia has extended itself to help customers keep building data centers. The $5 trillion tech behemoth earlier this month announced that it would partner with a who’s-who of top Wall Street investment firms to provide partial guarantees for up to $500 billion in data-center financing to better help its customers afford its chips. Shortly afterward, Nvidia agreed to backstop a massive Ohio data-center project by OpenAI that could leave the company on the hook for billions of dollars if plans to lease it fall through.

On Wednesday, the SMI gained 0.1 percent to 14,543 points. Holcim was the top performer in the SMI, rising 3.7 percent. In second place was the stock of its subsidiary Amrize. It had fallen sharply the previous day following news that the CFO was stepping down. Now it has rebounded by 3.3 percent. Defensive stocks brought up the rear in the index. The two pharmaceutical stocks, Roche and Novartis, lost 1.5 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively. Swisscom dropped 0.7 percent. Among smaller caps, SoftwareOne surged by nearly 10 percent. The company posted strong growth in the first half of the year while also increasing profitability. Net income rose to 70.6 million from 29.6 million Swiss francs. Gurit also jumped by just under 21 percent following the release of its financial results. The specialty plastics manufacturer raised its annual targets and appointed its interim CEO to the permanent position of Group CEO. Rail equipment supplier Stadler Rail exceeded expectations regarding its first half results, with revenue surging 40 percent and operating profit even doubling. The stock soared 22.4 percent in response.

Europe
European stock markets closed directionless on Wednesday. The Stoxx Europe 600 index ended virtually unchanged at 656.4 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 gained 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 edged up 0.1%, while the FTSE 100 lost 0.1% in London. Corporate news remained scarce. SAP led the list of losers on the DAX with a 2.9 percent decline. UBS had downgraded the stock to “Neutral” from “Buy,” citing, among other things, a lack of short-term AI-driven catalysts. However, other stocks in the sector were also under pressure: Nemetschek fell by 1.4 percent and Atoss Software by 1.6 percent. In London, Sage dropped 3.8 percent, and in Paris, Capgemini declined by 2.7 percent. Steel stocks gained ground following recently improved economic data, such as the German Ifo Index. Thyssenkrupp added 5.5 percent, and Salzgitter improved by as much as 9.1 percent. ArcelorMittal increased by 3.2 percent, and in Vienna, Voestalpine climbed 4.1 percent. Stocks in the construction and services sectors also advanced significantly. Heidelberg Materials soared 5.2 percent, and Bilfinger jumped 4.2 percent. In Zurich, Holcim was up 3.7 percent, and in Milan, Buzzi increased by 3.2 percent.

United States
U.S. stocks ticked down after surprisingly heated inflation data led to traders keeping their powder dry ahead of earnings results after the bell from artificial-intelligence giant Nvidia. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 113.52 points, or 0.21%, to 53463.88. The S&P 500 declined 1.58 points, or 0.02%, to 7675.70, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 21.10 points, or 0.08%, to 26130.20. The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index rose 3.7% on an annual basis in July, remaining far above the Federal Reserve's target inflation level. Meta shares rose 1.1% to $576.14 after the Facebook and Instagram owner agreed to an $18 billion settlement with 48 state attorneys general, ending a federal trial about social media's harm to teenagers and shifting legal responsibility for social media to tech companies. Abercrombie & Fitch rallied 36% to $147.75 after the youth-fashion retailer said its profits would be bolstered by a tariff refund and resilient demand. Shares touched a new 52-week high of $154.48 during the trading session. Revolution Medicines rose 1.9% to $215.44 after the Food and Drug Administration granted commercial approval to the biotech firm's pancreatic-cancer pill, a major milestone in a fight against an especially lethal form of the disease. Revolution shares have more than doubled this year. In deal activity, fund-management firm Vanguard Group struck a $4 billion deal to acquire financial technology platform Altruist, seeking to expand its offerings to financial advisors.

Asia
Asian indexes diverged for the Thursday trading session despite strong earnings from Nvidia. In Tokyo, the market is up, with Topix gaining 0.3 percent. The tech-heavy Kospi in Seoul is up significantly by 1.8 percent. Shanghai added 0.6 percent. In contrast, Hong Kong is down half a percent. Asian chip stocks are mixed. In Seoul, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics climbed3.0 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively. In Tokyo, Kioxia rose 5.0 percent, and Murata Manufacturing gained 2.2 percent. In Taipei, Taiwan, Largan jumped nearly 10 percent, but Taiwan Semiconductor advanced only 0.4 percent. In Hong Kong, Hua Hong increased by more than 4 percent, and SMIC gained just over 2 percent. In Tokyo, however, Advantest declined by 1.8 percent.

Bonds
Long-dated U.S. government debt yields edged higher on Wednesday. Spurred by the inflation data, the yield on the 30-year bond rose 0.11 percentage point to 5.185%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note added 0.026 percentage point to 4.663%. The yield on the policy-sensitive two-year Treasury ticked up 0.021 percentage point to 4.222%. Tumbling oil prices this week gave a brief shot in the arm to the Treasury Department's latest efforts to lower yields on long-dated U.S. government bonds.

Analysis
Georg Fischer Price Target: Jefferies raises to CHF 68 (64) - Buy
Kardex Price Target: UBS upgrades to CHF 350 (346) - Neutral
Inficon Price Target: Jefferies raises to CHF 200 (156) - Buy


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