NVIDIA surpasses Amazon, Alphabet, Tesla and Meta

Hey Superheroes,

The ASX was filled with excitement this week as big Aussie names including BHP, Fortescue Metals and Woolworths released half-year earnings reports. 

On Wall Street, NVIDIA swept up all headlines this week with its blockbuster quarterly earnings report.

Let’s get into it.

NVIDIA gains US$250b market cap overnight

NVIDIA’s share price jumped about 15% overnight after releasing numbers that showed impressive year-on-year growth. 

Currently valued at a market cap of over US$1.9T, NVIDIA has overtaken Amazon, Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Tesla. 

NVIDIA is now the fourth largest company in the world.

🍟 The hottest chips

Despite being adversely affected by the U.S. semiconductor chip export restrictions, NVIDIA still managed to grow earnings more than expected. 

Here are last quarter’s numbers compared to last year’s comparable quarter:

• Revenue: $22.1b vs $6.05b (^265%) in the previous year. 
• Net income: $12.3b vs $1.41b (^769%)
• EPS: $4.93 vs $0.57 (^769%)

NVIDIA’s CEO expects strong growth to continue into next year. 

Chips are expected to still be in short supply in the coming months as demand is expected to remain strong.

Fresh Challenges for Woolworths

On Wednesday, the Woolworths share price dropped 8.7% after posting a net loss of A$781m in the first half of FY 2024. It’s the supermarket chain’s first half-year loss since 2016.

🛒 Woolies fails to WOW

Alongside the earnings announcement, Woolies also shared the news that its CEO was leaving his post after eight years at the helm. 

It hasn’t really been discussed whether his resignation was related to Woolies’ financial performance. But some think it may be related to his recent bombshell interview with the ABC where he took issue with some of the questioning and (momentarily) walked out. 

Woolies, alongside Coles, have recently been put on notice by the ACCC for potential issues related to price gouging and anti-competitive practices. Some prominent figures believe that the two supermarket chains have been a “duopoly” and that they should sell off some of their chains in order to boost competition.  

📝 Partly just a paper loss

On the bright side, Woolies’ half-year net loss was impacted by its investment in Endeavour (ASX:EDV) and its NZ business having to be written down. 

Taking those one-time items out, Woolies’ underlying profit actually grew 2.5% year-on-year to A$929m.

🔦  Some other things we’re shining the Spotlight on:

• A COPPER-RIFFIC LISTING: NYSE-listed Metals Acquisition listed on the ASX (ASX:MAC) this week in what is considered the ASX’s biggest mining IPO in over five years. 
• WISH UPON A FALLEN STAR: The Star Entertainment Group is down over 19% this week after the NSW Independent Casino Commission commenced a second round of inquiries to check on the Star’s progress on its promise to improve anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism operations. 
• FORTESCUE TO THE RESCUE: Fortescue reported better-than-expected half year earnings of US$3.33b, 41% higher than in H1 2023. Similarly, the iron ore producer announced a fully-franked dividend of A$1.08, 44% higher than the previous year’s. Fortescue cited strong commodity prices for its performance. 

Next Wednesday we’ll be seeing an update on monthly AU inflation data. Earnings season for both ASX and Wall Street also continues with Suncorp, Coles, Zip and Salesforce, Lowe’s and Snowflake among those reporting.

Keep up to date with market news and insights by following us on Instagram, @superheroau!

That’s all for this week’s Spotlight!