Nasdaq leads stocks higher as Nvidia earnings and inflation data approach

Markets don’t often hand investors two potential catalysts on the same day. This week, they’re getting both: Nvidia’s fiscal second-quarter earnings and the July Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, landing back-to-back on August 26. Ahead of those releases, the Nasdaq Composite led a broad advance on August 25, with tech shares recovering ground after a rough patch driven by chip-stock anxiety. What Wall Street is watching from Nvidia Analyst consensus heading into the print is aggressive. The street is modeling adjusted earnings per share of $2.09 for the quarter, roughly double what Nvidia posted in the same period a year ago. On the revenue side, expectations sit around $92 billion, a year-over-year increase of approximately 97%. To put that in perspective: Nvidia would be nearly doubling its top line in twelve months, driven almost entirely by insatiable demand from data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout. A beat on both EPS and revenue, combined with strong forward guidance, would likely extend the Nasdaq’s recent momentum. A miss, or even guidance that merely meets expectations rather th...