The JSE was firmer on Thursday morning, with its global peers as investors cheered a strong second-quarter earnings report from Nvidia.
Nvidia, the chipmaker bolstered by enthusiasm for artificial intelligence, beat estimates and issued optimistic guidance for the current period.
Nvidia has been the best-performing S&P 500 stock of 2023, up more than 200%, as investors cheer its AI-related prospects. Investors were watching the company’s report for signs of whether the market can resume this year’s move higher, or if the August downturn will be prolonged, Bloomberg reports.
A major event of the week for markets is a speech by US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell at Jackson Hole on Friday, when his words will be scrutinised for clues on the path of US interest rates.
Investors had hoped that the Fed would opt to hold hiking rates and that it would begin cutting rates early next year. But such hopes have been diminishing after recent inflation and jobs reports came in stronger.
The Jackson Hole event has been the setting for major policy announcements by the Fed in the past. The event is set to kick off this afternoon.
At 10.30am, the JSE all share had gained 1% to 74,764.04 points and the top 40 0.97%. Precious metals had added 2.35%, retailers 1.67%, SA listed property 1.46%, industrials 1.09%, financials 1.05% and resources 0.71%. Industrial metals had lost 0.58%.
In Europe, France’s CAC 40 had added 0.71% and Germany’s DAX 0.6%.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.12%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 2.11% and Japan’s Nikkei 0.87%.
At 10.36am, the rand had weakened 0.73% to R18.5936/$, 0.72% to R20.1956/€ and 0.7% to R23.6211/£. The euro was little changed at $1.0861.
Gold gained 0.35% to $1,920.66/oz, while platinum lost 0.2% to $927.6/oz. Brent crude was 0.2% weaker at $82.79 a barrel.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.