Morning Wrap: ASX 200 futures slip as Nvidia pops 4% after beating earnings

ASX 200 futures are down 21 points (-0.25%) as of 8:30 am AEDT.

In a nutshell:

• Nvidia’s results just dropped, sending the stock up about 4% in pre-market trade. The company beat expectations with adjusted EPS of $1.30 (vs $1.25 forecast) and revenue of $57.01 billion (vs $54.92 billion). It expects about $65 billion in sales in the current quarter, versus $1.43 in earnings per share on $61.66 billion of revenue expected by analysts.

• Major US benchmarks swung between gains and losses before closing higher, led by tech, ahead of Nvidia’s earnings.

• Market breadth remained soft, with the Equal-Weight S&P 500 slipping 0.15% while the cap-weighted index rose 0.38%.

Let's dive in.

S&P 500 SESSION CHART

S&P 500 ends higher ahead of Nvidia's results (Source: TradingView)

OVERNIGHT MARKETS

• US equities finished mostly higher in Wednesday afternoon trading, closing off worst levels

• Outperformers included semis/semicaps, banks, IBs, credit cards, asset managers, private equity, multis, hospitals, nuclear, and waste. Tariff-exposed names, high-beta stocks fared well. Big tech was mixed but GOOGL a big gainer and NVDA up ahead of its post-close earnings

• Gold finished up 0.4%

• Bitcoin futures were down 3.9%, moving below $90K

• WTI crude settled down 2.3%

STOCKS & ETFs

• Tesla's Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen plan to develop a 500 megawatt data center in Saudi Arabia (Bloomberg)

• Block, the owner of Afterpay, soars 9% after releasing its multi-year outlook, forecasting mid-teens annual gross profit growth through 2028, alongside roughly 30% annual growth in adjusted operating income (CNBC)

• Google continues to buck the broader tech selloff, surging to a record high and breaking through $300 for the first time on the back of Berkshire’s new stake and the launch of Gemini 3.0 (Yahoo!)

• Barrick Gold announces management shakeup as activist investor takes large stake in company (Globe and Mail, Bloomberg)

• iShares Bitcoin Trust, BlackRock’s flagship crypto ETF, saw a record US$523 million in outflows as Bitcoin slipped below US$90,000 this week (BNN Bloomberg)

• Blue Owl calls off merger of two private-credit funds amid negative headlines and volatility (CNBC)

• JPMorgan trading desk says latest dip in stocks is a good buying opportunity (Bloomberg)

TARIFFS

• White House officials saying proposed semiconductor tariffs may not come soon (Reuters)

CENTRAL BANKS

• Federal Reserve officials were split at their October meeting over whether a cooling labour market or persistent inflation posed the greater risk, according to minutes released today (CNBC)

• Atlanta Fed is now projecting Q3 GDP at +4.2%, countering narrative around looming recession (Link)

ECONOMY

• The US Bureau of Labor Statistics says it won’t publish October’s jobs report due to the shutdown, and will fold limited October data into a delayed November report now set for December 16 (US time) (Yahoo!)

ASX TODAY

• A2 Milk raised its revenue guidance. Company executives will tell investors at its AGM today that the company plans to declare a NZ$300 million special dividend and is reaffirming its policy of paying out 60–80% of NPAT. Management said the outlook is running ahead of expectations, with IMF, Nutritionals and Liquid Milk all trading stronger than anticipated. Revenue is now expected to grow in the low double digits, with net income set to come in slightly above FY25.

WHAT TO WATCH TODAY

• All eyes on Nvidia: The chipmaker reports today, with Wall Street watching closely for signs of whether the AI boom is accelerating, stabilising, or finally cooling. Like it or not, Nvidia will set the tone for markets in the near term.

BROKER MOVES

• Nufarm upgraded to Hold from Underperform; target up to $2.22 from $2.07 (Jefferies), and to Buy from Hold; target increased to $3.20 from $2.60 (Morgans)

Stocks trading ex-dividend: 

• Fri 21 Nov: N1 Holdings (N1H) – $0.003, Orica (ORA) – $0.32

Other ASX corporate actions today:       

• Dividends paid: None

• Earnings: Turners (TRA), AFT Pharmaceuticals (AFT)

• IPOs: None

• AGMs: A2 Milk (A2M)

Economic calendar (AEDT):

• 12:30 am: US wages data, initial jobless claims

• 2:00 am: US existing home sales