News

Morning Bid: Market held in thrall ahead of Nvidia numbers

Nvidia is holding the investment world in thrall ahead of an earnings report later today that, even if it delivers the expected doubling of second-quarter revenue, may not satisfy investors accustomed to market-moving outperformance. The chipmaker's market value was around $390 billion on the eve of the launch of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, ChatGPT, less than two years ago. Trade in Asia was light and moves modest ahead of the release, and European equity futures were flat.

Lego outperforms toy market with robust sales in Europe and North America

Lego's sales of its colorful plastic bricks outpaced the overall toy market in the first half of the year, driven by strong demand in Europe and North America, the Denmark-based toymaker said on Wednesday. The family-owned Lego company said sales from January through June rose 13% to 31 billion Danish crowns ($4.65 billion). By comparison, Lego increased first-half sales by 1% last year and 17% in 2022, year over year.

PLTR vs. GOOGL: Which Technology Stock Is Better?

In this piece, I evaluated two technology stocks: Palantir Technologies (PLTR) and Alphabet (GOOGL). A closer look suggests a neutral view of Palantir and a bullish view of Alphabet. Palantir Technologies specializes in big data analytics, while Alphabet is a holding company that owns the Google search engine and sells apps and content on Google Play and YouTube. Alphabet also generates revenue from cloud services fees, licensing revenue, and hardware products like Chromebooks and other devices.