After closing Tuesday's session nearly 3% in the red, Nvidia (NVDA) shares were up 1.5% in pre-market trading on Wednesday, ahead of the release of the chipmaker's highly anticipated earnings.
Nvidia (NVDA) is set to release its fourth quarter results after the market closes on Wednesday, rounding off this season's earnings releases from the Magnificent 7.
The company's earnings are particularly closely watched by markets, as its chips have helped facilitate the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, so its numbers can offer insight into demand for the technology.
Nvidia (NVDA) has guided to revenue of $37.5bn (£29.7bn), plus or minus 2%, for the period, which compares to record revenue of $35.1bn in the third quarter.
The chipmaker has a track record of delivering results that beat estimates, so expectations have become high around its earnings, with Wall Street expecting the stock to move 7% in either direction on the results.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Given the AI euphoria, which has swamped markets and led to the chip giant’s heady valuation, there is a keen interest in whether the seemingly insatiable demand for its products is going to continue.
"The arrival of low-cost Chinese model DeepSeek rattled investors but, given Nvidia’s (NVDA) first mover advantage and the huge infrastructure investment plans from tech giants like Meta, it’s an indication that Nvidia’s (NVDA) high-end chips will remain in demand."
"However, investors have come to expect a lot from Nvidia (NVDA) given its previous record beating results so it could still be a volatile ride ahead especially if Nvidia’s (NVDA) misses forecasts of 72% revenue growth," she added.
Shares in electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla (TSLA) sank more than 8% in Tuesday's session, after data showed the company saw a sharp drop in sales last month.
New car registrations for Tesla (TSLA) across Europe slid 45% in January year-on-year to 9,945 units, according to the figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association released on Tuesday. Its share of new car registrations in Europe declined to 1% from 1.8% for the same period last year.
The drop comes after CEO Elon Musk made several high-profile interventions in European politics, including backing the far-right AfD party in the recent federal elections in Germany, and may hint at the Tesla's chief's waning popularity with the region's consumers.
The fall in the company's shares on Tuesday has taken its market valuation back below the $1tn mark, to nearly $974bn.
Server maker Super Micro Computer (SMCI) surged in after-hours trading and was up nearly 22% before the market opens on Wednesday, after the company met a deadline from the Nasdaq to submit delayed regulatory filings in order to avoid delisting.
The company had delayed submitting its quarterly and annual filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after a report from short seller Hindenburg Research last August accused Super Micro (SMCI) of accounting manipulations, which the server maker has denied.
Super Micro (SMCI) missed its first Nasdaq deadline to submit its SEC filings and avoid delisting in late 2024 but was granted an extension through 25 February.
In a statement announcing the company had met its deadline on Tuesday, Charles Liang, CEO of Super Micro (SMCI), said: "With our financial reporting now current, we can now fully focus on executing our proven winning growth strategy through technology, product and solution innovations, time-to-market advantage, global footprint, and green computing.
"We are investing extensively in people and processes across our engineering, sales, finance, accounting, compliance, and operations to achieve our great mission in DLC, data centre building block solution (Supermicro 4.0) as well as our revenue target."
The stock has seen a stronger performance more recently, with shares up 49% year-to-date. Shares surged earlier in the month after Liang said on an earnings call that the he believed the company had the "potential to reach [revenue of] $40bn for fiscal year '26".
Beer brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI.BR), which is behind brands including Budweiser and Stella Artois, beat profit expectations in its latest quarterly results.
Shares in the beer giant surged more than 7% on Wednesday morning, after the company posted organic quarterly profit growth of 10.1% to $5.25bn, beating estimates of 7.7%.
The forecast-beating profits came even as AB InBev (ABI.BR) reported some weakness in China. The company said volume growth performance was "significantly constrained" by China and Argentina, which resulted in a total volume decline of 1.4%.
Hargreaves Lansdown's Streeter said: "AB InBev (ABI.BR) has managed to pour out impressive results despite a sharp drop in volumes in China and weakness in Argentina.
"Although this shows that demand in other markets is still pumping, and costs are being kept under control, there will be concerns about future growth if the slowdown in China takes hold."
Oil major BP (BP.L) has confirmed that it will ramp up oil and gas spending, increasing investment to $10bn a year, according to a statement released on Wednesday.
BP said its investment in its green transition businesses would be $1.5bn to $2bn per annum, more than $5bn a year lower than previous guidance.
BP said it was introducing a "fundamentally reset strategy", in a bid to boost its weakening performance.
The company recently reported that profits had slumped to a fresh four-year lower in the fourth quarter. BP (BP.L) reported an underlying replacement cost profit of $1.17bn, down sharply from the $2.27bn it reported in the third quarter. Underlying replacement cost profit is the metric BP (BP.L) uses as its version of net income.
In 2020, BP (BP.L) unveiled the target of cutting oil and gas production by 40% while increasing renewables by 2030. The company then scaled back this target in 2023 to a 25% reduction, before reports late last year that it was abandoning its target to cut oil and gas output by 2030.
Murray Auchincloss, CEO of BP (BP.L), said: "We are reducing and reallocating capital expenditure to our highest-returning businesses to drive growth, and relentlessly pursuing performance improvements and cost efficiency. This is all in service of sustainably growing cash flow and returns."
BP (BP.L) shares were down nearly 1% on the back of the reports on Wednesday morning.
Other companies in the news on Wednesday 26 February:
