Nvidia reported another quarter of record sales and gave a strong revenue outlook, pointing to red-hot demand for chips that underpin the artificial-intelligence boom. Huge investments in AI by tech giants from Microsoft to Amazon.com and by other large corporations have helped propel Nvidia’s sales to unprecedented levels in recent quarters. In its latest period, its fiscal third quarter, sales more than tripled to $18.1 billion, well above Wall Street forecasts in a survey of analysts by FactSet. Profits also surged, rising to $9.2 billion compared with $680 million a year earlier and above estimates. Sales for the current quarter would be around $20 billion, Nvidia said, above expectations of about $18 billion. Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said the strong growth reflected a transition into a new era of computing and a surge in generative AI systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT that can generate convincing language and images with minimal prompting. Nvidia’s shares fell 1.7% in after-hours trading.

The Swiss stock market ended on a positive note on Tuesday, bucking the weak trend in other markets in Europe. Still, the mood remained cautious once again, with investors looking ahead to the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting. The benchmark SMI ended with a modest gain of 41.96 points or 0.39% at 10,782.21. The index, which stayed a bit sluggish in the first hour, edged higher as the session progressed. Sonova rallied 5.4% despite lowering its annual core profit forecast. Nestle gained about 1.5% and Holcim ended 1.1% up. Novartis, Alcon and Givaudan ended higher by 0.8 to 1%. Swiss Re advanced 0.6%. UBS Group and Lonza Group ended lower by 1.33% and 1.23%, respectively. Zurich Insurance Group, Swiss Life Holding, Richemont and Logitech International declined 0.5 to 0.7%. Among the stocks in the Mid Price Index, Lindt & Spruengli advanced 1.11%. Straumann Holdings, Tecan Group and Galenica Sante gained 0.35 to 0.6%. AMS tanked 10.3%. Meyer Burger Tech, BKW, Clariant, VAT Group, Swatch Group, Avolta and Belimo Holding ended lower by 1 to 2.4%. Data from the Federal Customs Administration showed Switzerland's trade surplus dropped to CHF 3.4 billion in October from CHF 5.0 billion in September. In real terms, exports fell 7.2% monthly in October, reversing a 3.8% rise in the previous month. The decline in imports deepened to 3.1% from 0.7%.

European stocks closed slightly weak on Tuesday with investors assessing the likely move by global central banks with regard to interest rates, and largely refraining from making significant moves ahead of the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's most recent policy meeting. Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said that financial markets are putting too much weight on the current data releases and underestimates the persistence of inflation. At the Treasury Select Committee hearing on Tuesday, Bailey said the decline in inflation was good news. Inflation will end the year a bit lower than the central bank estimated, he said. However, Bailey said the central bank is concerned about the potential persistence of inflation in the course of its journey down to the 2% target. Regarding suggestions on raising the inflation target to 3%, Bailey said it is a very bad argument. He asserted that the target should remain at 2%. The pan European Stoxx 600 edged down 0.09%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 shed 0.19%, France's CAC 40 lost 0.24% and Germany's DAX settled 0.01% down, while Switzerland's SMI climbed 0.39%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden closed weak. Iceland, Russia and Turkiye ended higher. In the UK market, IAG ended 4.55% down. Easyjet, Just Eat Takeaway.com, Johnson Matthey, Carnival and Entain lost 3 to 3.6%.

Artificial intelligence powered the stock market for much of the year. Now it is testing U.S. stocks’ November rally. The S&P 500 slipped 0.2%. The Dow industrials fell 0.2%, or 63 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite led the losses, sliding 0.6%. This year’s stock-market gains were largely fueled by the AI boom, but that stalled this summer as Treasury yields surged. The script has flipped back to big-tech stock domination in recent weeks. Cooling inflation raised hopes that the Federal Reserve is through with its rate-hiking campaign, weighing on Treasury yields. Nvidia shares fell 0.9% on Tuesday before its aftermarket earnings. Investors also watched the drama unfold at OpenAI, contemplating the implications for Microsoft, which lost 1.2% on the day. Big tech has broadly proven resilient to higher interest rates, but its strength doesn’t augur another dot-com bubble, Stovall said. He sees room for Nvidia to continue to run. Consumers are becoming money-conscious now that inflation fatigue is setting in, evidenced by earnings reports among retailers. Best Buy shares fell 0.7% after the retailer cut its full-year sales outlook, saying consumers are hunting for deals and demand has been hard to predict. Lowe’s dropped 3.1% after slashing its outlook for the year. Core shoppers pulled back on big-ticket purchases, the company reported. Kohl’s shares fell 8.6% after reporting sales that missed Wall Street estimates. CEO Tom Kingsbury said Kohl’s is aggressively discounting to win market share this holiday season.

On the East Asian stock markets and also on the Sydney Stock Exchange, the movements of the indices on Wednesday were small in the course of trading. The overall trend is mixed. The biggest movement is in Tokyo, where the Nikkei-225 is picking up a little after starting in the red. It is 0.5 per cent higher at 33,516 points in late trading. Some tailwind comes from the weakening yen. There will be no trading in Japan on Thursday due to a public holiday.

The benchmark U.S. 10-year yield finished Tuesday at 4.417%, down from 4.421% on Monday. It remains well below its peak of 5% a month ago. Minutes from the Fed’s most recent meeting showed officials expect policy to remain restrictive for some time.

JP Morgan lowers Julius Baer target to CHF 64 (69) – Overweight
UBS lowers Alcon target to CHF 78 (82) – Buy
Citi raises target for Deutsche Börse to EUR 187 (168) – Neutral

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