Finance Evening: Nvidia's Earnings Beat Fuels Tech Rally; 'Buy Canadian' Sentiment Surges

📊 Today's North American Markets

1. Nvidia defends its AI ecosystem against 'circular financing' criticism as stock rallies

Source: Yahoo Finance

Nvidia shares jumped Thursday after the chipmaker's fiscal second-quarter results, reported Wednesday, beat market expectations, powering a tech-led rally that lifted the Nasdaq. Attention then turned to the company's strategy of investing in and supporting AI startups.

Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress addressed the "circular financing" criticism head-on during the Q2 earnings call. "We know some will call this circular financing. We see it differently. We are going through a major computing platform shift, the creation of one of the most important technologies in human history," Kress said.

Kress added that demand from AI labs receiving some form of financial support from Nvidia will account for about a quarter of the company's business next year. Nvidia expects some frontier AI labs to become the largest tech companies in history.

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2. Okta and CrowdStrike surge as AI threat drives cybersecurity spending

Source: CNBC

CrowdStrike and Okta shares surged Thursday after earnings showed that artificial intelligence adoption is pushing customers to spend more on cybersecurity tools. Both companies beat Wall Street estimates for the fiscal second quarter and raised forecasts, citing the AI agent threat.

CrowdStrike gained about 20% for its best day ever, while Okta surged nearly 29%. The broader cyber sector rallied as well, with Palo Alto Networks, SailPoint, Zscaler and Rubrik up at least 10% each.

"We're in an arms race," CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said. "AI is driving more cyberattacks. AI is driving more cyber spending." Both CrowdStrike and Okta are up more than 80% each this year.

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3. Gap shares jump 12% after naming new Old Navy CEO

Source: CNBC

Gap announced Thursday that Michael Francis will become the new CEO of its Old Navy banner, effective Nov. 2. Francis, appointed chief customer officer at Old Navy in May, will take over from Haio Barbeito, who has held the position since 2022 and will become an advisor.

Gap CEO Richard Dickson called the move "a planned and thoughtful transition" to better equip Old Navy for its next chapter. Shares of Gap jumped 12% in extended trading Thursday.

Old Navy posted fiscal second-quarter net sales of $2.1 billion, down 4% year over year, marking its first negative same-store sales figure since the second quarter of 2023. The brand contributes nearly 60% of Gap's overall revenue.

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4. Canada's 'buy Canadian' sentiment surges as retailers promote local goods

Source: Xinhua Finance (eeo.com.cn)

After trade negotiations between Canada and the United States broke down at the last minute, negative sentiment toward the U.S. has risen among Canadians, reigniting a domestic "buy Canadian" movement.

The U.S. recently imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, and Canada announced retaliatory tariffs of the same scale starting Sept. 8. A survey by the Angus Reid Institute found frustration, disappointment, anger and anxiety to be frequent words used by respondents describing their feelings about the trade dispute.

Loblaw, Canada's largest retailer and food distributor, said it will relaunch the "T" symbol on shelf labels to mark products whose prices have risen due to tariffs, and continue using the maple leaf symbol to promote local products. Rival Sobeys also said it will prioritize local products and label them "Made in Canada."

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5. Canadian exporters scramble to deal with 'staggering' U.S. tariffs

Source: The Washington Post

Canadian exporters who sell clothing, alcohol and other products hit by the new 50 percent U.S. tariffs are worried the levies will discourage American consumers — taking a debilitating bite out of their businesses.

Canadian clothing company Anián has moved to block affected products for U.S. online shoppers so they don't get hit with surprise tariff bills. Founder Paul Long said the company has been affected by the tariffs.

The report notes Canadian exporters are working to find ways to offset the potential drop in purchases by U.S. consumers due to the tariffs.

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6. Joly to meet Canadian auto industry executives in Toronto on Friday

Source: Sina Finance

Canadian Industry Minister Joly will meet executives from Canada's auto industry in Toronto on Friday.

The auto sector is one of the focal points of the Canada-U.S. trade dispute. With trade talks broken down and the U.S. imposing tariffs on Canadian goods, the situation of Canada's auto industry is drawing close attention.

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7. Fed Chair Warsh to deliver key Jackson Hole speech Friday

Source: CNBC

Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh is set to deliver his much-awaited keynote address Friday at the Fed's annual Jackson Hole symposium. This year's event is titled "Financial Innovation: Implications for Payments and Policy."

Since taking the reins in May, Warsh has placed greater emphasis on market direction than on cues from the Fed, and has set up five task forces to take a "first principles" look at Fed functions. With rising Treasury yields in focus, the stakes for Friday's speech are particularly high.

Mark Cabana, head of U.S. rates strategy at Bank of America, said he expects Warsh to signal he is prepared to raise rates again if inflation does not continue to moderate; if the speech focuses solely on structural themes, markets could interpret the message as dovish.

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8. Cleveland Fed's Hammack says 'now is the time to act' on rates

Source: CNBC

Cleveland Federal Reserve President Beth Hammack on Thursday repeated her call for higher interest rates, saying recent inflation data shows the central bank is still too far from its goal. A report released Wednesday showed inflation running around 3% on an annualized basis.

"I don't want to prejudge anything. But I believe now is the time to act," Hammack said in a CNBC interview from Jackson Hole. "We've been in an inflationary situation for more than five years."

At the July meeting, Hammack, a voting member this year, was one of three dissenters who preferred a quarter-point hike over holding the policy rate in a range of 3.5%-3.75%. Market pricing indicates the Fed will stay on hold in September and October, waiting until December for the next hike.

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9. Bitcoin tests $80,000; miner IREN tops sales views

Source: Investor's Business Daily

Bitcoin continued to trade around three-month highs near $80,000 Thursday, spurred by last week's Treasury Department bond buyback plan and renewed regulatory agitation from the Trump administration.

Bitcoin miner and high-performance computing infrastructure provider IREN topped revenue estimates after the close. Crypto stocks swung higher Thursday.

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10. Family offices make a bullish bet on stocks, trimming private markets

Source: CNBC

Family offices boosted their stock holdings in the second quarter and trimmed exposure to real estate and private market investments, according to the CNBC Family Office Portfolio Tracker.

Single family offices held 37% of their portfolios in stocks in the second quarter, up from 34% in the first quarter — the largest increase in several years — signaling continued bullishness on the AI trade. Addepar CEO Eric Poirier called it the biggest quarter-on-quarter shift in three or four years.

The top five most commonly held stocks were Microsoft (77%), Amazon and Alphabet (76%), Apple (70%) and Nvidia (69%). Private market allocations fell to 46% from 49%, the largest drop in years.

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