Financial Mindset

Nvidia’s Q2 release on Aug. 27 marked by far the biggest event of this earnings season, and the AI chip giant scored another phenomenal performance. For the three months ended July 28, Nvidia beat analysts’ already Brobdingnagian forecasts for sales, revenue, and guidance, though a shortfall in data-center sales proved a slight disappointment that sent shares around 1% lower in midmorning trading on Aug. 28. Some Wall Street analysts also expressed concerns over a disclosure in Nvidia’s 10-Q that for its trademark franchise—chip sales to data centers—it’s collecting 44% of its revenues from just two hyperscalers, assumed to be Microsoft and Meta Platforms . If you’re a Nvidia investor, or pondering buying its shares now, it’s important to recognize that the threat to getting anything resembling big returns isn’t that heavy dependence on a few big customers, or Chinese rivals playing catch-up, but the law of large numbers. Put simply, Nvidia’s profits and market cap are already so gi...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit  ruled that most of President Donald Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs on global trading partners are illegal, upholding an earlier ruling by the Court of International Trade, which found that the tariffs’ legal basis under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act wasn’t valid. President Donald Trump’s trade war suffered a severe blow late Friday, when a federal appeals court stuck down most of his so-called reciprocal tariffs against global trading partners. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld an earlier ruling by the Court of International Trade, which found that the tariffs’ legal basis under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) wasn’t valid, saying that the administration’s argument for the tariffs didn’t constitute an emergency. “Both the Trafficking Tariffs and the Reciprocal Tariffs are unbounded in scope, amount, and duration,” the majority wrote...

ANZ Group Holdings Ltd. said staff compensation will take a hit if employees aren’t in the office at least half of the working week, as chief executive officer Nuno Matos drives an overhaul of the Australian lender. The email on Thursday to managers detailed a tool to track attendance of staff members and outlined pay brackets for people not meeting the 50% threshold, according to an internal memo. A spokesperson for ANZ confirmed its contents. The communication on its workplace policy comes at a time of intense focus on Matos’s turnaround strategy at the Melbourne-based lender. Earlier this week, ANZ managers had intended to outline job losses to staff, but instead automated emails were sent  by mistake  ahead of this.  ANZ has been under fire for mishaps in risk management and culture, areas that Matos has vowed to improve. Matos has pushed to increase productivity of staff since he took the helm in May and the firm has been reviewing its hybrid work arrangements. P...

The U.S. housing market’s inventory is growing, putting pressure on prices and slowing new construction, according to fresh research from the Bank of America Institute . As of June, existing-home supply reached 4.7 months, the highest level since July 2016. New-home supply surged even further to 9.8 months—its highest point since 2022—highlighting how quickly inventory is building across the housing market. The influx of available homes reflects sluggish demand, with builders citing weak buyer urgency, affordability challenges, and lingering job instability. The Institute noted new-home inventory is now at its highest level since 2007, the year before the housing market collapse that led to the Great Financial Crisis. ResiClub co-founder Lance Lambert told Fortune that the rising inventory tells us that “homebuyers are gaining leverage” as slack in the housing market is increasing. “The Pandemic Housing Boom saw too much housing demand all at once, home prices overheated too fast ...

A few weeks ago as the S&P 500 hit a new record, this reporter noted that the index virtually hit a landmark reading, a price to earnings ratio of 30. I actually cheated a bit, as I pointed out in the piece: The actual figure was around 29.85, close enough that I rounded it to 30. The point then was, this is a big, big number that you seldom see mentioned by Wall Street analysts or pundits, who’d rather cite a lower, more marketable multiple based on “next year’s” (always over-estimated) profits or “operating earnings” that exclude real charges as basic as interest expense. But now it’s in the record books: At 2:35 PM on August 28, the S&P hit another fresh summit at 6501, and the real, not-rounded-up PE hit 30. That ratio’s based on what matters most, GAAP earnings posted over the last four quarters, profits that really happened as opposed to usually over-rosy predictions. The only span in recent decades when big cap stocks have been this expensive: Ten quarters during the t...

Modest gains on Wall Street lifted the stock market to an all-time high Wednesday ahead of a highly anticipated earnings update from computer  chip giant Nvidia . The S&P 500 rose 0.2%, good enough to nudge the benchmark index past the record high it set two weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% and the Nasdaq composite closed 0.2% higher. Technology companies led the way higher, outweighing declines in communication services and other sectors. After the market closed,  Nvidia reported quarterly earnings  and revenue that topped Wall Street analysts’ forecasts, though the company noted that sales of its artificial intelligence chipsets rose at a slower pace than analysts anticipated. The stock fell 3.2% in after-hours trading after having slipped 0.1% during the regular session. Investors consider Nvidia a barometer for the strength of the boom in artificial intelligence because the company makes most of the chips that power the technology. Its ...

Nvidia posted record results for the second quarter of 2025, exceeding analysts’ expectations on both revenue and profit, yet shares slipped modestly in after-hours trading as its crucial data center division narrowly missed Wall Street forecasts. Nvidia reported revenue of $46.7 billion for the second quarter, marking a 56% increase compared to the same period last year. Adjusted earnings per share reached $1.05, beating analyst estimates by $0.04. Investors had extremely high expectations for Nvidia’s data center division, with forecasts set at $41.3 billion. The reported figure was $41.1 billion, a 56% increase year-over-year but just below consensus, raising concerns about whether the pace of AI-driven growth is peaking or facing headwinds, leading to a roughly 3% drop in shares after the report. Investors could also be reacting to the fact that Nvidia’s sales gain was the smallest percentage in over two years and the forecast showed that it continues to expect a s...