Overseas stock markets were in positive territory despite initial claims for unemployment benefits remaining around the same level over the week.
Economists are keenly watching the trends in employment to understand whether the US labour shortage will worsen.
The Dow Jones continues to fall on the back of weaker energy prices, down 0.2%, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq outperforming, up 0.3% and 0.5% each.
NVIDIA’s massive growth
The strength was driven almost solely by the semiconductor manufacturer, NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) with the US$800 billion company representing close to 3% of the index.
The company gained over 8% after announcing revenue jumped 50% to a record US$7.1 billion the quarter, with data centres and gaming sales up 55% and 42%, respectively.
Incredible market power and manufacturing strength are behind the strong performance with management highlighting expanding capacity to deal with current supply shortages.
Macy’s big recovery
Shares in department store Macy’s (NYSE: M) gained over 20% as the company appears to be turning around its fortunes.
Profit reversed from a loss of US$91 million to a positive US$237 million with comparable stores sales surging over 30% as doors reopened.
US stock market report
Here’s how other popular US stocks performed overnight.
- JD.com (NASDAQ: JD) up 5.9%
- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) up 4.1%
- Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) up 2.9%
- Twitter (NSYE: TWTR) down 4.0%
- Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) down 6.6%
- Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM) down 8.3%
Back home on the ASX, S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is expected to open higher on Friday. For all the latest, check out my ASX 200 morning report.
