Nvidia, Best Buy, and More!
Editor’s Note: Happy Friday, dear reader! We made it to the weekend!
Let’s get to it!
Nvidia Reports Q2 Beat But Fails to Impress Wall Street
This week, Nvidia (NSDQ: NVDA) reported its fiscal second-quarter earnings. And while the company reported better-than-expected earnings, its stock dropped yesterday thanks partly to the market’s ridiculous expectations for the chipmaker.
After the bell on Wednesday, Nvidia reported quarterly revenue of $30 billion, a 15% increase from the previous quarter and a 122% increase from the year-ago quarter. Analysts had expected the company to report sales of $28.7 billion.
That marked the fourth straight quarter of triple-digit revenue growth for the chip company.
In addition, the company reported profits of $16.6 billion, a significant improvement over the $15 billion analysts had estimated.
However, Wall Street’s expectations for Nvidia keep rising.
As a result, Nvidia’s revenue guidance for its fiscal third quarter — at $32.5 billion — disappointed investors, although it came in ahead of estimates. That sales figure would represent “only” an 80% year-over-year increase.
Nvidia also disappointed investors by announcing that its full-year gross margins would be in the “mid-70% range.” According to StreetAccount, analysts had been expecting the company’s full-year margin to reach 76.4%.
After reporting earnings results, Nvidia’s stock pulled back by nearly 5%.
Prior to its fiscal second-quarter earnings report, the chip company’s stock had skyrocketed by more than 150% year to date.
And since the start of 2023, Nvidia shares have risen by more than an incredible 750%. Nvidia is one of only three U.S. companies to ever grow its market cap above $3 trillion.
These outsized gains have materialized largely because of the buzz on Wall Street about artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) are used by large tech companies such as Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), and Meta Platforms (NSDQ: META) to train large AI models.
Just as a rising tide lifts all boats, apparently a sinking chip company drags down its sector. Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (NYSE: TSM) — which makes the chips that Nvidia designs — dropped following the earnings announcement, as did those of rivals Intel (NSDQ: INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (NSDQ: AMD).
Wall Street is also concerned that Nvidia will have a delayed rollout of its next-generation AI chips, dubbed Blackwell chips.
On Wednesday’s earnings call, Nvidia executives sought to allay investor fears. “In the fourth quarter, we expect to ship several billion dollars in Blackwell revenue,” the company’s chief financial officer, Colette Kress, said.
Best Buy Hopes to Ride the AI Coattails, Too
Meanwhile, retailer Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) also reported earnings this week.
The company reported revenue of $9.29 billion, versus analyst estimates of $9.24 billion. However, that was below the $9.58 billion reported for the same period a year ago.
Net income for the quarter came in at $291 million, or $1.34 per share. In the year-ago quarter, net income totaled $274 million, or $1.25 per share.
However, comparable sales dropped 2.3% during the quarter — albeit an improvement over the 6.2% decline posted a year ago.
Best Buy has been struggling with softer sales for nonessential products in recent years.
As consumers have tightened their purse strings in reaction to higher prices on just about everything, retailers that specialize in discretionary merchandise such as Best Buy — as well as Target (NYSE: TGT) and Macy’s (NYSE: ) — have been hard hit.
As a result, Best Buy has been attempting to affect a turnaround plan. That includes adding specialist sales teams to its stores and a marketing campaign focusing on YouTube videos.
In the most recent quarter, Best Buy posted comparable sales growth of 6% for its domestic tablet and computing categories. Still, drops in appliance, home theater, and gaming-related sales “more than offset” those gains.
“We capitalized on demand driven by our customers’ desire to replace or upgrade their products, combined with new innovation,” CEO Corie Barry said on an earnings call.
“We see a consumer who is seeking value in sales events and one who is also willing to spend on high-price-point products when they need to or when there is new, compelling technology.”
According to Barry, she’s expecting AI to give the retailer a boost. “We believe we are just at the beginning of the impact of AI on tech innovation and customer demand.”
Conference Board Reports Consumer Confidence Results
A report released by the Conference Board this week showed that Americans are feeling more confident about the economy overall. However, they’re concerned about the cooling labor market.
The Conference Board’s reading of its consumer confidence index showed an increase from 101.9 in July to 103.3 in August.
However, in a press release, the think tank’s chief economist, Dana Paterson, remarked that consumers reported “mixed” feelings.
“Compared to July, [consumers] were more positive about business conditions, both current and future, but also more concerned about the labor market,” she noted.
“Consumers’ assessments of the current labor situation, while still positive, continued to weaken, and assessments of the labor market going forward were more pessimistic.
“This likely reflects the recent increase in unemployment.
“Consumers were also a bit less positive about future income.”
One bright spot: Consumers are feeling more confident that inflation will continue to abate. The survey’s results showed that consumer expectations for price increases in the next 12 months fell to their lowest level since March 2020 — back when the COVID pandemic really kicked off.
Still, the report noted that it found 32.8% of consumers said jobs were “plentiful” in August. That’s a slight downturn from the 33.4% who reported the same in July.
At the same time, a slightly growing percentage of respondents — 16.4% versus 16.3% in July — said that jobs were “hard to get.”
That jibes with data we’ve seen from the Labor Department. In July, the U.S. unemployment rate reached its highest percentage in almost three years — 4.3%. In addition, data showed that the economy employed 818,000 fewer people than reported in March.
In its battle against inflation, the Federal Reserve has been looking for a softer — but not weak — jobs market.
Last week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted that this goal has been achieved.
“It seems unlikely that the labor market will be a source of elevated inflationary pressures anytime soon,” he said in his annual keynote speech from Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
“We do not seek or welcome further cooling in labor market conditions.”
Mortgage Rates Finally Head Lower
Mortgage rates have finally retreated from their recent highs.
According to Freddie Mac, the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.46% last week.
That’s the lowest it’s been since May 2023.
Before that downturn, rates had jumped by more than 4 percentage points in just two years. In fall 2023, they peaked at 7.79%.
“Although mortgage rates have stayed relatively flat over the past couple of weeks, softer incoming economic data suggest rates will gently slope downward through the end of the year,” Freddie Mac’s chief economist, Sam Khater, said.
“Earlier this month, rates plunged and are now lingering just under 6.5%, which has not been enough to motivate potential homebuyers.
“We expect rates likely will need to decline another percentage point to generate buyer demand.”
Take a look:
You will find more infographics at Statista
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