Nvidia, bitcoin, BOJ’s Ueda – what’s moving the markets By Investing.com

Investing.com — Wall Street is trading mixed Monday as investors await an earnings release from Nvidia, one of the main beneficiaries of this year’s artificial intelligence craze. Bitcoin remained in demand, while the Japanese yen fell due to increased uncertainty about when the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates next.

1. Nvidia’s Q3 earnings in focus

The biggest corporate release this week comes from chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ:), a bellwether for this year’s AI craze, which will report earnings on Wednesday after the close of its third quarter.

The results could be a bellwether for investor appetite for tech stocks, AI trading and sentiment for stocks in general after a post-election market rally stalled.

Nvidia’s chips are considered the gold standard in the AI ​​space and its shares are up about 200% this year, overtaking Apple (NASDAQ:) to become the largest company in the world by market cap.

Analysts see Nvidia’s third-quarter revenue rising more than 80% to $32.9 billion, but The Information reported Sunday that the company’s new Blackwell AI chip would have problems with overheating when connected to custom server racks .

The company is working with suppliers to change the design of the racks to reduce the overheating problem. The AI ​​chip giant has already delayed Blackwell by a quarter due to design flaws that have now been resolved.

2. Futures mixed; most important business results in the spotlight

U.S. stock futures traded mixed on Monday, beginning a week that included several big corporate gains as well as commentary from a range of Fed officials.

At 03:50 ET (08:50 GMT), the contract fell 135 points, or 0.3%, while rising 8 points, or 0.1%, and rose 145 points, or 0.7%.

The three major indexes retreated last week after Fed chief Jerome Powell warned that the US central bank was in no “hurry” to cut rates further.

Nvidia’s earnings will be in the spotlight this week (see above), but there are also results from the likes of Walmart (NYSE:) and Lowe’s Companies (NYSE:), which will provide new insights into the strength of consumer spending .

Year to date, 93% of companies reported results, three-quarters of them reported a positive earnings per share surprise and 61% reported a positive revenue surprise, FactSet data shows.

Investors will also have the opportunity to hear from several Federal Reserve officials, including the president of the Chicago Fed, the president of the Kansas Fed and the president of the Cleveland Fed, Beth Hammack.

3. The BoJ remains vague about the timing of the interest rate increase

The Japanese yen weakened against the US dollar on Monday after the governor of the Bank of Japan declined to provide specific guidance on the timing of rate hikes.

At 3:50 AM ET, it traded 0.4% higher at 154.88, moving away from Friday’s low of 153.86, after Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato warned of possible intervention.

Addressing monetary policy directly for the first time since Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, Ueda reiterated that interest rates would continue to rise gradually if the economy developed in line with the central bank’s outlook.

However, he made no mention of whether there would be a rate hike in December, which was a disappointment to those who thought his speech was intended to make a policy point.

4. still has a long way to go

Bitcoin, the world’s most popular digital currency, continued to trade above $90,000 on Monday, benefiting from Donald Trump’s election victory and the prospect of an easier regulatory environment.

At 3:50 AM ET, Bitcoin was trading 1.2% higher at $91,996.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency has become one of the most notable gainers in the week since the election, gaining more than 30% since November 5 and hitting a record high of $93,480.

President-elect Donald Trump, a former crypto skeptic, has promised to set up a national Bitcoin reserve and make the US a global hub for the industry.

The cryptocurrency still has “a long way to go,” said Cathie Wood of ARK Invest in a CNBC interview on Nov. 15, noting that Ark was the first public asset manager to gain exposure to Bitcoin in 2015 at $250.

Wood said the continued momentum would be driven by “regulatory relaxation,” one of the key things expected from the new US administration.

“We have a 2030 target in our base case of around $650,000, and in our bull case it’s between $1 million and $1.5 million,” Wood said, reiterating her price forecast for the next five years.

5. Raw materials take back previous gains

Crude oil prices fell on Monday, giving back earlier gains after fighting between Russia and Ukraine intensified over the weekend, amid continued concerns about a supply glut next year.

At 3:50 AM ET, futures (WTI) were down 0.2% at $66.81 per barrel, while the contract was down 0.1% at $71.03 per barrel.

President Joe Biden’s administration has allowed Ukraine to use American-made weapons to strike deep inside Russia, reports showed on Sunday, in response to Russia’s deployment of North Korean ground troops to supplement its own forces.

The war has had little impact on Russian oil exports so far, but if Ukraine were to focus on more oil infrastructure, oil markets could make a bigger geopolitical bid.

Benchmark contracts fell more than 3% last week on weak data from China and after the International Energy Agency forecast that global oil supply will easily exceed demand by 2025 even if cuts by a group of top producers remain in place.