PARIS (Reuters) – The Standard & Poor’s-500 and Nasdaq indices rose at the start of Thursday’s session, driven by the rise of chipmaker Nvidia after the announcement of very good forecasts, but the Dow Jones remained meanwhile at the lingers with doubts about the US debt ceiling.
Minutes after the start of trading, the Dow Jones index lost 68.26 points, or 0.21%, to 32,731.66 points and the broader S&P-500 rose 0.49% to 4,135.43 points. .
The Nasdaq Composite took 1.19%, or 148.18 points, to 12,632.342.
Nvidia, climbing 25%, sees its market valuation grow by 190 billion dollars, a hair’s breadth from the record set by Apple last November.
Fifth-largest capitalization in the United States, Nvidia announced on Wednesday evening a forecast for quarterly turnover more than 50% higher than analysts’ expectations and announced a strengthening of its offer to meet the growing demand for its chips. intelligence (AI), used in particular to power ChatGPT.
“We see Nvidia as the heart and lungs of the AI revolution as its core chips drive and develop apps like ChatGPT,” Wedbush analysts wrote.
“To investors who are talking about an AI bubble, we emphasize that Nvidia’s results and forecasts confirm our bullish scenario on AI and testify that a fourth industrial revolution is looming on the horizon.”
Major AI players like Microsoft and Alphabet gain 2.22% and 1.79% respectively. The manufacturers of semiconductors Advanced Micro Devices, Micron and Broadcom grant themselves 1.95% and 7.66%.
Still, the S&P-500 could post its worst weekly performance since March and the banking crisis, as investors wait to hear whether Republican and Democratic negotiators will reach an agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Thursday that progress has been made.
The rating agency Fitch has placed the triple A rating of the United States under surveillance, before a possible deterioration if no agreement is reached to avoid a default.
On the macro side, today’s data showed a resilient labor market, with the number of jobless claims rising only marginally over the past week, while the Commerce Department raised its economic growth estimate to 1 .3% in the first quarter.
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(Laetitia Volga, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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