By Jaspreet Kalra and Gregor Stuart Hunter
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Global equities were modestly higher on Thursday, sidestepping a wobble in tech sector stocks after the results of bellwether Nvidia fell short of some analyst expectations, sending its shares lower in out of hours trading.
The MSCI World Equity Index was up 0.1% and pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 0.4% while equity futures pointed to a steady start for S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes.
Nvidia’s shares were down 2.2% in U.S. pre-market trading as uncertainty over its China businesses clouded a better-than-expected revenue forecast for the next quarter.
Semiconductor stocks in Europe were mixed as investors parsed the firm’s outlook, which was slightly above consensus analyst expectations but also disappointed investors accustomed to blowout results.
What also caused concern was that data centre revenues of $41.1 billion fell short of analyst expectations of $41.3 billion, said Mark Matthews, head of research for Asia at Bank Julius Baer in Singapore.
“Granted it was minor, but a miss is odd for this company,” he said. U.S. equity futures, meanwhile, pointed to a muted start for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes.
Shares of chip supply chain major ASML edged lower while in Asia, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company 2330 tumbled 1.1%. Nvidia’s Chinese competitors, on the other hand, surged with SMIC up 9.5%.
Elsewhere, French political developments are likely to stay in focus for regional markets following Prime Minister Francois Bayrou’s gamble to win backing for his deeply unpopular debt-reduction plan via a confidence vote next month.
France’s 10-year government bond yield eased slightly on Thursday but remained close to its highest level since March while the benchmark CAC 40 equity index advanced 1%.
Pernod Ricard was among the biggest gainers on the STOXX 600, gaining 7% after the French spirits maker reported a lower than expected drop in its yearly sales and profit
“We believe a snap election is partly in the price but could still lead to OAT spreads widening towards 90-95bp. For French equities this could imply further 5% downside,” analysts at Citi said in a note.
The spread between the 10-year benchmark bund and its French counterpart eased slightly after hitting a seven-month peak of nearly 83 basis points in the previous session.
The European single currency, meanwhile, was unchanged on the day at $1.1635, holding on to a three-week winning streak that bumped up its gains this month to 2%.
Developments in France are “putting a bit of a dampener on upside potential for euro-dollar but for us the bigger story is obviously what could happen with the Fed,” said Lee Hardman, senior currency analyst at MUFG.
Expectations of policy easing by the U.S. central bank alongside lingering worries about Fed independence present downside risks to the dollar, he said.
On Thursday, the dollar was little changed against a basket of peers at 98.2.
Money markets are currently pricing a 88.7% probability of a 25-basis point rate cut at Fed’s policy meeting on 17 September, up from 61.9% a month ago, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
“Risks are more in balance. We are going to just have to see how the data play out,” New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams said on Wednesday
The interest-rate expectation sensitive 2-year U.S. Treasury yield was at 3.6188%, down 7 basis points on the week and hovering close to its lowest level since late-April.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said he is firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, ramping up his campaign to assert influence on the central bank which left some investors worried about the political influence on monetary policy decisions. In commodities markets, Brent crude fell 0.5% to $67.67 per barrel as investors weighed expectations for lower U.S. demand as the end of summer nears and awaited India’s response to punitive U.S. tariffs. Spot gold was flat at $3399.60 per troy ounce, on course for a near 1% weekly gain. [GOL/]
(Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra and Gregor Stuart HunterEditing by Shri Navaratnam, Sonali Paul and Frances Kerry)
