Markets rise even as Nvidia shares decline on results

Dow climbed 306, advancers over decliners better than 2-1 & NAZ advanced 187.  The MLP index gained 4+ to the 282s & the REIT index fell 2+ to 422.  Junk bond funds crawled higher & Treasuries had selling which reduced yields (more below).  Oil rose 1+ to the 76s & gold jumped 16 to 2553 (record territory).

Dow Jones Industrials

Artificial intelligence giant Nvidia (NVDA) 2nd-qtr earnings report, which beat estimates as the company's AI-driven momentum continued.  Analysts expected EPS to come in at 64¢, up 137% from last year, while its revenue was estimated to be $28.7B, up 112% from last year.  EPS came in at 68¢ while revenue was $30B.  Data center revenue, its largest operating segment, was projected to rise by 144% from last year to $25.1B.  The company beat estimates & brought in $26.3B in sales from the segment, an increase of 16% from the prior qtr & 154% from a year ago.  "Hopper demand remains strong, and the anticipation for Blackwell is incredible," NVDA founder & CEO Jensen Huang said of the company's core chip offering & its next-generation product, respectively.  "Nvidia achieved record revenues as global data centers are in full throttle to modernize the entire computing stack with accelerated computing and generative AI," Huang added.  Analysts had cited some concerns about production delays with the Blackwell AI chips that could push back deliveries & impact its revenues in the next few qtrs.  Huang said that it has started sending out Blackwell samples, but didn't offer a timeline related to its anticipated 2025 ramp-up.  "Blackwell samples are shipping to our partners and customers. Spectrum-X Ethernet for AI and Nvidia AI Enterprise software are two new product categories achieving significant scale, demonstrating that Nvidia is a full-stack and data center-scale platform," Huang said.  "Across the entire stack and ecosystem we are helping frontier model makers to consumer internet services, and now enterprises. Generative AI will revolutionize every industry."  NVDA also issued a forecast for 3rd-qtr revenue that came in above estimates, projecting revenue of $32.5B, plus or minus 2%, for the 3rd qtr, above analysts' estimate of $31.8B.  But the stock fell 3.30.

Nvidia earnings beat Wall Street expectations again amid strong AI demand

Salesforce (CRM), a Dow stock, fiscal 2nd-qtr results that beat estimates & raised its full-year profit outlook.  The company also said CFO Amy Weaver will step down.  She will remain at the company as the CFO until a successor is appointed &, after that, will stay on as an advisor.  CRM will consider internal & external candidates, Marc Benioff, the company's co-founder, chair & CEO, said.  He said it was his idea to have Weaver take over the lead financial role after joining as general counsel in 2013.  Revenue grew 8% year over year during the qtr, which ended on Jul 31.  Weaver pointed to growth in average revenue per user, partly because of a shift to premium products.  EPS was $1.47, up from $1.28 in the same qtr a year ago.  With respect to guidance, CRM called for adjusted fiscal 3rd-qtr earnings of $2.42 to $2.44 on $9.31B to $9.36B in revenue.  Analysts had expected EPS of $2.43 on $9.41B in revenue.  Management called for $10.03 - $10.11 in adjusted fiscal 2025 EPS, with $37.7B to $38B in revenue, which implies growth of 8-9%.  Last qtr's forecast was $9.86-9.94 EPS & revenue of $37.7-38.0B.  The estimate was $9.89 in adjusted EPS, with $37.84B in revenue.  Adjusted operating margin guidance for the full year is now 32.8%, up from 32.5% in May.  "We are assuming that the conditions we've been experiencing over the past few years persist," Weaver said.  Execs have previously pointed to longer sales cycles & scrutiny of budgets.  The stock went up 1.72.

Salesforce beats earnings estimates, CFO Amy Weaver to step down

The 10-year Treasury rose as investors looked ahead to a key inflation report due tomorrow.  The yield on the 10-year Treasury traded nearly 5 basis points higher at 3.886%, while the yield on the 2-year Treasury gained 4 basis points to 3.906%.  Yields & prices move in opposite directions & 1 basis point equals 0.01%.  It comes as market participants await a fresh batch of economic data, with focus set to turn to the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge tomorrow.  Economic data released today showed that weekly jobless claims fell from the prior week, further easing recession concerns.  In addition, 2nd-qtr gross domestic product was revised higher to 3% growth from an initial 2.8% rate.  US personal consumption expenditures price index will be published tomorrow & the reading could offer more clues on the outlook for interest rates.  Federal Reserve officials use the measure as their main baseline to gauge inflation.  Fed Chair Jerome Powell said late last week that "the time has come for policy to adjust," bolstering expectations for a rate cut at the central bank's next meeting.  Powell declined to provide exact indications on the timing or extent of the cut, however.  Market participants are firmly pricing in a rate cut at the Fed's Sep 18 meeting.  Traders are currently pricing in a 65.5% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut next month, with 34.5% pricing in a 50-basis-point rate cut, according to the CME Group's FedWatch Tool.

Treasury yields rise as investors agwait key U.S. inflation data

The stock market's performance difficult to understand.  Even though big tech companies are doing well on NAZ, NVDA is not.  Good was just not good enough for its investors.  Meanwhile, Dow & gold are at record levels.  Go figgah!