Tonight's Highlights: Starship V3 Debut Flight Enters Final Countdown; NVIDIA Shares Flat Despite Stellar Earnings Beat
With NVIDIA’s earnings safely out of the way, the deadlocked US-Iran negotiations in the Middle East have returned to the forefront of market concerns. Wall Street's upward momentum began to fade, while oil prices and US Treasury yields rebounded.
At press time, Nasdaq 100 Index Futures (June 2026 contract) slid 0.65%, S&P 500 Index Futures dropped 0.43%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures fell 0.33%.
According to reports citing sources on Thursday evening, Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has ordered that weapons-grade-adjacent uranium must remain within Iran. Sources added that the Supreme Leader's directive reflects a consensus among Iranian authorities.
Following the news, international oil prices and US Treasury yields spiked rapidly, while major European equity indices and US stock futures weakened.
Amid unresolved tensions with Iran, further reports emerged that the Trump administration has begun drafting military contingency plans targeting Cuba.
The US Southern Command announced on social media Wednesday that the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group has entered the Caribbean Sea.
NVIDIA Shares Soft Post-Earnings Despite Beat; Core Metrics Surge
Following its latest financial release, NVIDIA, the world's most valuable public company, slipped nearly 1% in pre-market trading.
Given the stock's historical tendency to soften after blockbuster reports, today's performance is considered relatively resilient.
The company reported first-quarter revenue of $81.6 billion and a net profit of $58.3 billion, while forecasting second-quarter revenue to reach $910 billion—all figures exceeding consensus estimates.
A key highlight of the report was NVIDIA’s projection that its CPU sales will reach $20 billion this year, marking its official entry into a "GPU+CPU" dual-engine growth era. The company also announced an additional $80 billion share buyback program and raised its quarterly dividend from $0.01 to $0.25 per share.
As NVIDIA swells into a $5 trillion behemoth, investors are increasingly finding it difficult to envision a continuation of such hyper-growth and outsized returns.
At this critical juncture, SpaceX—a company heavily reliant on investor imagination—has arrived at the doorstep of the Nasdaq exchange. Its Wednesday prospectus revealed an astounding Total Addressable Market (TAM) of $28.5 trillion, an unprecedented figure in the history of US IPO filings.
However, SpaceX’s upcoming test flight may carry more weight for its IPO than the prospectus figures. At press time, Starship’s twelfth test flight (the maiden flight of Starship V3) remains scheduled for Thursday at 17:30 Central Time.
Other Market News
US Government Stake Concept Expands; IBM, GlobalFoundries Join Ranks
At press time, IBM jumped over 5%, GlobalFoundries surged over 13%, D-Wave Quantum rose over 14%, and Rigetti Computing gained over 12% in pre-market trading.
These companies confirmed they have received funding awards from the US Department of Commerce under the CHIPS Act, with the US government receiving an equivalent value in equity shares. Notably, IBM secured $1 billion, while GlobalFoundries received $375 million.
This follows earlier reports that the Commerce Department would grant $2 billion to nine companies in the quantum computing sector.
SpaceX Plans 10,000 Launches Annually Within 5 Years
The head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revealed Wednesday that SpaceX is floating an ambitious plan to achieve 10,000 launches per year within five years.
However, the agency noted that government officials will need to see improvements in reliability before approving such an expansion.
Anthropic Heads Toward First Quarterly Profit
US artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is nearing its first quarterly profit since inception, as sales outpace the massive capital expenditures required to develop and deploy AI models.
According to recent fundraising materials sent to investors, Anthropic’s second-quarter revenue (ending June) is on track to hit at least $10.9 billion, more than doubling the $4.8 billion recorded in the first quarter.
Samsung Electronics Workers Projected to Receive 2.8 Million RMB Bonuses
Following a last-minute agreement between Samsung Electronics management and the labor union, details have emerged regarding coveted memory unit bonuses.
Under the new agreement, a memory chip worker with an annual salary of 80 million won is projected to receive a bonus of roughly 626 million won (approximately 2.8 million RMB) this year, with the majority to be paid out in equity.
Critical Metals Shares Jump on Rare Earth Supply Agreement
At press time, Critical Metals surged over 8% in pre-market trading. The company announced a 15-year binding off-take agreement with REalloys to supply rare earth element concentrates from its Tanbreez project in southern Greenland.