(Reuters) – A scorching rally in Nvidia’s shares this year came to a halt on Tuesday as investors worried if the high-flying chip designer’s quarterly results would justify its towering valuation.

The stock fell 5.3% to $687.91. If losses hold, it could be the biggest percentage drop in more than eight months.

Nvidia has been at the heart of the frenzy around artificial intelligence (AI). A more than 40% surge in its stock this year helped it replace Alphabet as the third most valuable U.S. company, behind Microsoft and Apple.

The market capitalization of Nvidia was $1.79 trillion on Friday.

“The market is maybe a little bit hesitant whether they (Nvidia) can deliver a strong enough guidance to reinvigorate the market even higher,” said Frank Lee, head of technology research at HSBC.

The company will report quarterly results on Feb. 21. Analysts expect earnings of $4.56 a share and revenue to rise to $20.378 billion from $6.05 billion a year earlier, according to LSEG estimates.

Still, Nvidia’s eye-popping run this year that pushed it to new peaks and powered gains in U.S. stock markets could make the stock vulnerable if earnings are less than stunning.

“You can’t come out and simply meet or slightly beat for the stock to go higher, Nvidia’s going to need to blow it away,” said Dennis Dick, a trader at Triple D Trading.

Nvidia options are pricing a swing of about 11% in either direction following results, according to data from options analytics service ORATS.

Other AI-focused stocks such as Super Micro Computer fell 11.6% and Arm Holdings dropped 7.3%.

Advanced Micro Devices was down nearly 6%, having recorded double-digit gains on a year-to-date basis.

Nvidia’s shares are trading at 32 times its forward earnings estimates compared with the industry median of 25.4.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Arsheeya Singh Bajwa and Bansari Mayur Kamdar; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

By Deborah Mary Sophia and Granth Vanaik

(Reuters) -Home Depot forecast full-year results below analysts’ estimates on Tuesday, signaling that lackluster demand would continue to pressure the company this year as people tighten spending on home remodeling amid sticky inflation.

With food prices and borrowing costs still elevated, customers are limiting home-related spend to just essential repair and maintenance rather than undertaking larger renovations.

Foot traffic at the No. 1 U.S. home improvement chain fell in the fourth quarter, with declines worsening toward January due to harsh winter weather, Placer.ai data showed.

“The home improvement market still faces headwinds … we are planning for a year of continued moderation but with slightly less pressure to (sales) than what we faced in fiscal 2023,” Home Depot CFO Richard McPhail said.

The back half of 2024 would be “marginally stronger,” CEO Ted Decker said.

Home Depot expects 2024 comparable sales to decline about 1%, while analysts estimate a 0.06% rise, LSEG data showed. The company’s shares fell about 1%.

“I’m not overly alarmed by the guidance … the timing of (recovery) is the big question mark,” said Sarah Henry, managing director and portfolio manager at Logan Capital Management.

Still, the consumer backdrop appeared strong, Henry added. Retail bellwether Walmart issued an upbeat annual sales forecast.

Fourth-quarter transactions at Home Depot fell 1.7%, logging their eleventh straight quarterly decline, while comparable sales dropped a bigger-than-expected 3.5%.

“There was an expectation … that the company could return to growth sooner than they’re guiding to,” said Jonathan Reid, a director at Fitch Ratings.

Home Depot forecast 2024 per-share earnings to grow about 1%, below expectations of a 3.62% rise.

Shares of Lowe’s, which reports results next week, also dropped 1.5%.

“I wouldn’t say it (the forecast) is a big red flag … it’s a little yellow flag,” D.A. Davidson analyst Michael Baker said.

(Reporting by Granth Vanaik and Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

(Reuters) -Home Depot forecast full-year results below analysts’ estimates on Tuesday, signaling that lackluster demand would continue to affect the company this year as people tighten spending on home remodeling amid sticky inflation.

The company’s shares fell more than 2% premarket, after it also reported a bigger-than-expected drop in fourth-quarter sales.

With food prices and borrowing costs still elevated, customers are limiting home-related spend to just repair and maintenance rather than undertaking larger renovations, resulting in weak demand for discretionary categories such as flooring, kitchen and furniture.

Even as demand for key items such as plumbing and hardware have held up, Placer.ai data showed foot traffic at Home Depot fell in the fourth quarter, with declines worsening toward the end of the reporting period.

Home Depot forecast comparable sales to decline about 1% for 2024, while analysts expected a marginal rise of 0.06%, according to LSEG data.

“There was an expectation from the market that the company could return to growth sooner than they’re guiding to,” said Jonathan Reid, a director at Fitch Ratings covering the retail and consumer goods industries.

While the home-improvement industry is expected to recover in the second half of the year, analysts believe Home Depot will continue to experience near-term pressure.

Transactions at the retailer fell 1.7% in the fourth quarter, logging their eleventh straight quarterly decline.

The company forecast 2024 per-share earnings to grow about 1%, compared to analysts’ expectations of a 3.62% rise to $15.61.

Comparable sales fell 3.5% in the fourth quarter, versus estimates of a 3.3% drop, but a tighter lid on costs and easing supply chain expenses helped Home Depot post a per-share profit of $2.82, beating estimates of $2.77.

(Reporting by Granth Vanaik and Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

(Reuters) -Data provider S&P Global said on Tuesday it plans to buy financial technology provider Visible Alpha for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2015, Visible Alpha is a financial technology firm that provides consensus estimates and analytics, and distributes the data through channels including a web-based platform and feeds.

S&P Global is also exploring options for its digital solutions provider Fincentric, formerly known as Markit Digital, the company said in a statement.

The deal for Visible Alpha, expected to close this year, and the consideration of options for Fincentric are part of measures to accelerate focus in key areas of strategic growth, S&P said.

(Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

By Noel Randewich

(Reuters) – Chipmaker Nvidia is replacing Tesla as Wall Street’s most traded stock, adding to its prominence after becoming the third-most valuable U.S. company and showing more evidence of how central AI-related bets have become to investors.

Nvidia’s outsized representation in day-to-day stock trading could leave investors more vulnerable should the chipmaker’s revenue growth fail to meet investors’ high expectations and puncture a Wall Street rally that has been fueled by euphoria about artificial intelligence.

The Santa Clara, California chipmaker’s quarterly report on Wednesday will be one of Wall Street’s most watched events of the week. Some strategists believe anything short of a blowout report could reverse a rally that has sent Nvidia’s stock soaring 47% in 2024.

About $30 billion worth of Nvidia shares changed hands daily on average over the past 30 sessions, pulling ahead of Elon Musk’s electric car maker, which averaged $22 billion per day over the same period.

Tesla since 2020 had dominated daily U.S. stock trading, according to LSEG data, with turnover — a stock’s share price multiplied by the number of shares exchanged — peaking above $35 billion several times in recent years.

On Friday, combined trading in Nvidia and Super Micro Computer, another company benefiting from the boom in AI, accounted for over 40% of all turnover of the 10 most traded U.S. stocks, including Tesla, Meta Platforms, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft.

“There’s an argument here that this is the dawn of a new era of trading, like the dawn of the internet, with Nvidia in the pole position,” said Dennis Dick, a trader at Triple D Trading in Ontario, Canada.

But Dick also warned that sky-high turnover in AI-related stocks suggests retail investors and algorithmic traders are driving share prices higher based on momentum rather than fundamentals, such as expectations of future revenue growth.

Super Micro, which sells AI-related server components to Nvidia, has seen its value more than triple to $45 billion so far in 2024. It tumbled 20% from record highs on Friday after Wells Fargo started covering the stock with an equal weight rating, saying its valuation already discounts “solid upside”.

Nvidia controls about 80% of the high-end AI chip market, and last week its market capitalization eclipsed, separately, Amazon’s and Alphabet’s to make it Wall Street’s third-most valuable company, behind Microsoft and Apple. Nvidia’s stock market value has surged to $1.8 trillion from $540 billion a year ago.

Meanwhile, Tesla’s stock has tumbled 20% so far in 2024 as it struggles with tepid demand for its electric cars and growing competition.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China’s securities watchdog said it held a series of seminars on Sunday and Monday with market participants who proposed tighter scrutiny of company listings and trading behaviour as part of efforts to revive market confidence.

The meetings were led by the watchdog’s newly-installed chairman Wu Qing and held immediately after the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, reflecting the urgency to stabilize a market that dropped to five-year lows early this month.

Participants, including small investors, listed companies, money managers and accounting firms, said regulators should tighten screws on initial public offerings and weed out listed companies that do not qualify.

They also proposed a fairer trading mechanism and harsher punishment for law breakers, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in a statement.

The watchdog said it would treat all proposals seriously and implement feasible ones immediately, reiterating its intention to “resolutely maintain market stability and control market risks.”

“Confidence is more precious than gold,” the official China Securities Journal said in an editorial on Tuesday.

Improved communication with the market can help rebuild confidence, and “we believe that careful listening is a good start.”

Wu, nicknamed the “broker butcher” after an earlier regulatory stint, was appointed CSRC chairman on February 7. He replaced Yi Huiman, who had failed to arrest share price slides despite a slew of measures designed to stabilise the market.

Just two days after Wu’s appointment, the watchdog punished employees at China Merchant Securities for illegal stock trading and fined Shanghai-based semiconductor company S2C Ltd for fraud in its listing application.

The CSRC plans to strengthen cooperation with law enforcement agencies to crack down on securities cheating and financial manipulation, the China Securities Journal said.

The regulator will also speed up registration of equity funds, and guide more long-term capital into the stock market, the newspaper said.

(Reporting by Shanghai newsroom; editing by Christina Fincher)

By Alexander Hübner and Emma-Victoria Farr

MUNICH (Reuters) -Munich is starting to steal some of German financial hub Frankfurt’s limelight as foreign banks flock to the southern city, which on a clear day has views of the Bavarian Alps.

The appeal lies in Munich’s high proportion of DAX companies and tech start-ups, large insurers and financial investors, while the nearby mountains add to its allure.

Firms such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been drawn by big German companies such as Siemens, Allianz and BMW being based around Munich, while their bankers also value the quality of life on offer.

“Many decision-makers work and live here, it’s a city where you can live well,” said Dietrich Becker, head of Europe and partner at Perella Weinberg, adding that Munich had the highest concentration of clients in Germany.

The U.S. investment banking boutique was a pioneer in choosing Munich for its German base, opening its office in 2020.

“In London and Paris there is a high concentration of companies and decision-makers, in Germany that is more spread out, people are constantly on the move,” Becker told Reuters.

Along with big established industrial and financial names, EQT and General Atlantic are among the largest technology investors present in Munich.

And there are also aspiring German software companies and many European subsidiaries of U.S. technology firms.

Next month, Goldman Sachs will be the first of the major investment banks to establish a presence in the Bavarian state capital when it opens a Munich office.

This will be Goldman’s second office in Germany after Frankfurt, where it has around 400 bankers, with its Wall Street rival Morgan Stanley set to follow suit in the summer. “We will be in Munich with a team of around 30 bankers, some of whom will move from Frankfurt but also some from London,” Wolfgang Fink, head of Germany and Austria and chairman of continental Europe at Goldman Sachs, told Reuters.

“We want to be where our clients are,” said Fink, adding that Munich was becoming “more and more international”.

TECH TEAMS

In the German tech sector, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are among some of the most sought-after investment banking advisers, alongside fellow U.S. giant JP Morgan.

“In terms of market value, there are around one third of DAX companies sitting here and more than ten ‘unicorns’, i.e. start-ups with a valuation of more than one billion euros,” said Tammo Buennemeyer, a technology specialist who will help establish Morgan Stanley’s team in Munich.

Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, says it will move the team of Tobias Koester, which covers financial investors, alongside its technology, telecom and media bankers (TMT) under Macario Prieto, head of TMT banking EMEA.

“In the long term, this regionalisation is also a result of Brexit, after which more business moved to the continent for regulatory reasons,” said Fink.

Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam fought to be the largest beneficiary from Brexit after Britain left the European Union, with Munich proving to be an unexpected beneficiary.

“The European continent as a whole has gained importance due to Brexit,” said Buennemeyer.

Perella Weinberg partners Stefan Jentzsch and Johann von Wersebe are based in Munich, while former Deutsche Bank CFO Marcus Schenck moved from the advisory boutique to Lazard two years ago, but stayed in Munich.

And another U.S. investment banking boutique, PJT Partners plans to open an office in Munich soon, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Most bankers agree, however, that Munich is unlikely to rival the more internationally-open Frankfurt as Germany’s banking capital, with only a fraction of them employed in the Bavarian state capital for now.

“Viewed from other European countries, Munich is certainly attractive,” said Fink. “But at the start of a career, many colleagues feel at home quickly in Frankfurt.”

(Reporting by Alexander Huebner and Emma-Victoria Farr; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Cryptocurrencies have roared back to life after more than two years of implosion and uncertainties. The flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin rallying to above the $50,000 a coin level is a testament that fear has dissipated and that investors are increasingly taking risks in the industry. Consumer activities in Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, were depicted by a 60% increase in revenues in the fourth quarter from a year ago and 80% compared to the third quarter.

Crypto Roars Back

RobinHood, which has been the epicenter of cryptocurrency transactions in recent years, has seen its trading volumes explode by more than 200% from a year ago. The increased volumes come as small investors continue to rush into the sector in pursuit of bargains after years of sell-offs and deep pullbacks.

Soaring trading volumes and revenues in the biggest exchanges is an indication that mom-and-pop traders who lost billions of dollars at the height of the 2022 collapse are ready to move on. The regulatory framework becoming increasingly clear with the launch of a US exchange-traded fund that allows for direct investing in Bitcoin continues to bolster sentiments about the overall sector.

The price of Bitcoin has more than doubled over the past 12 months on growing expectations that regulators in the US are ready to go slow on stringent regulations. The approval of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund is another factor that is bolstering sentiments in the sector, as the instrument is expected to attract more institutional investors into the nascent industry.

In addition, investors are optimistic about another market rally ahead of the much-awaited Bitcoin halving event. The software upgrade event, which results in the reduction by half the amount of reward that miners get, is often followed by a significant price increase. In the past, the event was followed by increased retail engagement.

Wave of Uncertainty

Retail traders account for the biggest share of activities in the industry, awaiting an influx of institutional investors. They continue to account for the lion’s share of trading volumes and revenues in Coinbase and other exchanges. Growing expectations that the US Federal Reserve will start cutting interest later in the year is also forcing investors to tweak their investment portfolios.

Nevertheless, a cloud of caution remains in the air with retail investors not jumping with both feet into investing in the sector. Web searches for the word Bitcoin commonly used to track sentiments spiked in the first half of January.

However it has collapsed back to bear market levels affirming investors are still being convinced about the long term outlook. There is always fear that the sector could come under pressure, especially on the dollar strengthening across the board on the Fed sticking with higher interest rates for long.

Additionally, downloads of top crypto exchange apps commonly used by retail traders are not yet back to levels registered at the height of the crypto bull run. Binance, which is one of the largest crypto exchanges, registered 10 million app downloads in the fourth quarter; a 1 million increase from the third quarter downloads.

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s financial regulator on Monday suspended trading of shares in food producer Nutresa, ahead of a planned public offer of shares launched by Grupo Gilinski, Nutresa’s current majority shareholder.

After several years of tense corporate wrangling, Grupo Gilinski agreed to exit its stake in the country’s largest investment firm Grupo Sura and take at least an 87% stake in Nutresa.

Gilinski along with its partner, IHC Capital Holding LLC, currently controls 76.9% of Nutresa.

The public offer will be for as many as all of Nutresa’s remaining shares, the regulator said in a statement, and trading is suspended until the day after the public announcement of the offer.

The purchase price for shares in Nutresa under the offer will be $12, the statement said. Shares in Nutresa closed at 46,700 pesos ($11.95) on Friday.

Neither Grupo Gilinski nor Nutresa, which operates in 14 countries and produces coffee, chocolates, pasta, ice creams and includes a chain of restaurants, responded to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Sandra Maler)

By Alexander Hübner and Emma-Victoria Farr

MUNICH (Reuters) – Munich is starting to steal some of German financial hub Frankfurt’s limelight as foreign banks flock to the southern city, which on a clear day has views of the Bavarian Alps.

The appeal lies in Munich’s high proportion of DAX companies and tech start-ups, large insurers and financial investors, while the nearby mountains add to its allure.

Firms such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been drawn by big German companies such as Siemens, Allianz and BMW being based around Munich, while their bankers also value the quality of life on offer.

“Many decision-makers work and live here, it’s a city where you can live well,” said Dietrich Becker, head of Europe and partner at Perella Weinberg, adding that Munich had the highest concentration of clients in Germany.

The U.S. investment banking boutique was a pioneer in choosing Munich for its German base, opening its office in 2020.

“In London and Paris there is a high concentration of companies and decision-makers, in Germany that is more spread out, people are constantly on the move,” Becker told Reuters.

Along with big established industrial and financial names, EQT and General Atlantic are among the largest technology investors present in Munich.

And there are also aspiring German software companies and many European subsidiaries of U.S. technology firms.

Next month, Goldman Sachs will be the first of the major investment banks to establish a presence in the Bavarian state capital when it opens a Munich office.

This will be Goldman’s second office in Germany after Frankfurt, where it has around 400 bankers, with its Wall Street rival Morgan Stanley set to follow suit in the summer. “We will be in Munich with a team of around 30 bankers, some of whom will move from Frankfurt but also some from London,” Wolfgang Fink, head of Germany and Austria and chairman of continental Europe at Goldman Sachs, told Reuters.

“We want to be where our clients are,” said Fink, adding that Munich was becoming “more and more international”.

TECH TEAMS

In the German tech sector, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are among some of the most sought-after investment banking advisers, alongside fellow U.S. giant JP Morgan.

“In terms of market value, there are around one third of DAX companies sitting here and more than ten ‘unicorns’, i.e. start-ups with a valuation of more than one billion euros,” said Tammo Buennemeyer, a technology specialist who will help establish Morgan Stanley’s team in Munich.

Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, says it will move the team of Tobias Koester, which covers financial investors, alongside its technology, telecom and media bankers (TMT) under Macario Prieto, head of TMT banking EMEA.

“In the long term, this regionalisation is also a result of Brexit, after which more business moved to the continent for regulatory reasons,” said Fink.

Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam fought to be the largest beneficiary from Brexit after Britain left the European Union, with Munich proving to be an unexpected beneficiary.

“The European continent as a whole has gained importance due to Brexit,” said Buennemeyer.

Perella Weinberg partners Stefan Jentzsch and Johann von Wersebe are based in Munich, while former Deutsche Bank CFO Marcus Schenck moved from the advisory boutique to Lazard two years ago, but stayed in Munich.

And another U.S. investment banking boutique, PJT Partners plans to open an office in Munich soon, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Most bankers agree, however, that Munich is unlikely to rival the more internationally-open Frankfurt as Germany’s banking capital, with only a fraction of them employed in the Bavarian state capital for now.

“Viewed from other European countries, Munich is certainly attractive,” said Fink. “But at the start of a career, many colleagues feel at home quickly in Frankfurt.”

(Reporting by Alexander Huebner and Emma-Victoria Farr; Editing by Alexander Smith)