Global stock markets experienced a general decline on Thursday, mirroring modest losses on Wall Street as investors processed recent economic updates from the United States.
In premarket trading, Nvidia's shares saw a significant jump of 7.2% following the release of its latest quarterly earnings report. The company surpassed Wall Street's expectations, driven by robust demand for its advanced artificial intelligence chips. Nvidia's earnings are closely watched as a bellwether for the broader AI and semiconductor industry, though persistent concerns about a potential AI bubble remain among investors.
European markets traded lower in early trading, with Britain's FTSE 100 falling 0.5% and France's CAC 40 declining 0.8%. Germany's DAX, however, edged 0.2% higher.
In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.2%, while South Korea's Kospi rose 1.5%, boosted by a 1.7% gain in heavyweight Samsung Electronics. Japan and South Korea's markets have been among the primary beneficiaries of the global AI surge, alongside Taiwan's market.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.3%, and the Shanghai Composite index in China rose 1.1%. This followed China's report that industrial profit growth slowed to 11.2% in July, down from 15.1% in June.
On Wednesday, U.S. stock markets saw slight declines. The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1%, remaining near record highs, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite dipped 0.1%.
U.S. economic data released Wednesday indicated that the economy grew at a revised pace of 1.5% in the April-June quarter. The inflation measure favored by the Federal Reserve stood at 3.7% last month, unchanged from June and above economists' expectations of 3.6%, further from the Fed's 2% target.
In other markets, oil prices edged down, with Brent crude declining 0.1% to $86.83 per barrel and U.S. benchmark crude falling 0.2% to $82.04 per barrel. The U.S. dollar strengthened against the Japanese yen, trading at 159.41 yen, and the euro weakened to $1.1646.