Nvidia shares jumped more than 14% in premarket trade on Thursday after the chip giant posted bumper earnings that beat Wall Street estimates.

The U.S. tech giant posted revenue of $22.10 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter, a rise of 265% year-on-year, while net income surged by 769%, as the company continues to see a boost from excitement over artificial intelligence.

Nvidia chips are used to train the huge AI models such as those developed by Microsoft and Meta.

Nvidia sees no signs of slowing. The company forecast its revenue in the current quarter will hit $24 billion, way ahead of estimates.

“Fundamentally, the conditions are excellent for continued growth” in 2025 and beyond, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told analysts on Wednesday, adding to the bullish sentiment around the stock.

Nvidia’s Data Center business, which includes the company’s H100 graphics cards that are used for AI training, posted sales of $18.4 billion in the fourth quarter, representing 409% year-on-year growth.

The positive outlook from Nvidia prompted a round of broker upgrades on Thursday. JPMorgan raised its price target on Nvidia’s stock from $650 to $850, while Bank of America Global Research hiked its target from $800 to $925.

Nvidia’s stock closed at $674.72 on Thursday. Shares were under pressure ahead of the earnings report as traders took profit and investors were concerned that Nvidia might not be able to hit lofty expectations.

But its market-beating numbers dispelled those fears and also pulled other global chip stocks higher.

Shares of cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks plunged 19% in extended trading Tuesday, after the company reported a beat on the top and bottom lines but lowered its full-year guidance for revenue and billings.

Here’s how the company did compared to LSEG, formerly Refinitiv, estimates:

Earnings per share: $1.46, adjusted, vs. $1.30 expectedRevenue: $1.98 billion vs. $1.97 billion expected

Net income was $1.7 billion for the quarter, or $4.89 per share, compared to $84 million, or $0.25 share, for the fiscal second quarter 2023.

The company is now guiding to full-year total billings between $10.1 and $10.2 billion, compared to its previous guidance of $10.7 and $10.8 billion. Palo Alto Networks also expects full-year revenue to range between $7.95 to $8 billion, compared to its prior guidance of $8.15 to $8.2 billion.

In a conference call with analysts, CEO Nikesh Arora said the lowered guidance was due to a “shift” in strategy, “wanting to accelerate growth, our platform migration and consolidation and activating AI leadership,” adding that the company expected “a difficult customer” as the company shifted stance.

Guidance for the upcoming quarter also fell short of consensus estimates. Analysts surveyed by LSEG expected the company to guide to fiscal third-quarter revenue of $2.04 billion, but Palo Alto Networks now expects revenue to range between $1.95 billion and $1.98 billion.

The new billings guidance represents full-year growth of between 10% and 11% versus previous guidance showing 16% to 17% billings growth. Similarly, Palo Alto Networks now expects full-year revenue growth between 15% and 16%, down from initial guidance showing 18% to 19% growth.

The lowered estimates come even as the AI frenzy sweeps up cybersecurity stocks and the broader technology sector. Arora said that the company would look to activate its “AI leadership strategy” in the earnings release.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

Shares of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase soared 12% Friday at 10:05 London time in U.S. premarket trading after the company reported its first profit in two years.

Coinbase, the largest U.S. venue for buying and selling cryptocurrencies, said that net income totalled $273 million in the fourth quarter.

This is the first time that the company has reported positive net income since the fourth quarter of 2021.

Coinbase said Thursday that its net revenue was $905 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, up nearly 50% from $605 million in the same period of the previous year.

Cryptocurrencies saw a huge amount of interest from investors in the fourth quarter of last year, following news of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approving the first spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) — for bitcoin.

Bitcoin ETFs enable retail investors to access the cryptocurrency as a share that’s traded on a regulated exchange without directly exposing them to the underlying asset.

The news has driven heightened demand for cryptocurrencies due to anticipation that it could drive heightened interest from retail investors.

Coinbase said that transaction revenues were the primary driver of revenues for the last quarter of 2023, adding that subscription and services revenue remained relatively flat.

Coinbase added that, in the fourth quarter, the company saw heightened volatility in crypto prices resembling levels observed during the first quarter of 2023.

This was driven by approval of the bitcoin ETF and broad expectations for improving macroeconomic conditions in 2024.

Consumer trading revenue was $493 million for the quarter, up 79% quarter-over-quarter.

Speaking with CNBC Thursday, Coinbase Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas said that the company did not have to adjust fees to account for the higher volumes coming through the platform, as this was supported by its mix of fees for “Simple” and “Advanced” traders.

“In Q4, and we’ve shared this for many quarters, a lot of the results of our fee rate is just the mix shift on our platform — who traded what product in the quarter,” she added.

“So in Q4, when we saw higher volatility, we grew Simple trading, but Advanced grew more.”

LONDON — Shares of Danish shipping giant Maersk slumped more than 17% in morning trade Thursday after it flagged “high uncertainty” in its 2024 earnings outlook amid Red Sea disruptions and an oversupply of shipping vessels.

The company also said that it would be suspending share buybacks on the back of the uncertainty.

Maersk said it expected underlying EBITDA (or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) of between $1 billion and $6 billion this year, compared to the $9.6 billion recorded in 2023.

Shares were trading 16.3% lower at 12:45 p.m. London time.

“The impact of this situation is causing new uncertainty for how this is going to play out from an earnings perspective throughout the year,” CEO Vincent Clerc told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

“We have very little visibility as to whether this is a situation that will resolve in a matter of weeks or months, or whether this is something that is going to be with us for the full year,” he added.

In a statement, the company added that its board had decided to “immediately suspend the share buy-back programme, with a re-initiation to be reviewed once market conditions in Ocean [division] have settled.”

It comes as the company reported fourth-quarter profit below expectations Thursday, with EBITDA for the three-month period dropping to $839 million versus the $1.13 billion anticipated by analysts.

Global supply chains have faced serious disruption since late 2023 after major shipping companies began diverting journeys away from the Red Sea following a string of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The Iran-aligned group has targetted commercial vessels with drones and missiles in what they say is an act of solidarity with Palestinians amid the ongoing Gaza-Israel war.

The diversions around one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes have pushed up delivery times and costs, with the OECD warning Monday that it could increase inflation.

The Paris-based group said that the recent 100% rise in seaborne freight rates, if persistent, could see import price inflation across its 38 member countries rise by nearly 5 percentage points.

The rerouting has boosted freight rates for shipping companies, but Clerc said it was unlikely that those increases would feed through to profits.

“I don’t think from an earnings perspective, for the industry or for Maersk, when you look at it in its entirety that this is going to be something where we generate significant profit out of the situation,” he said.

“It is something where today the amount of cost we’re absorbing in order to keep the global supply chain going is still unknown.”

Eli Lilly on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings that topped expectations on the strong launch of its new weight loss drug, Zepbound, and higher prices for its blockbuster diabetes drug, Mounjaro.

Zepbound, which won approval from U.S. regulators in early November, raked in $175.8 million in sales for the fourth quarter.

The quarterly results are the first to include sales of Zepbound, which some analysts say could post more than a billion dollars in sales in its first year on the market and eventually, become the biggest drug of all time. 

Shares of Eli Lilly were up about 5% in premarket trading Tuesday.

Here’s what Eli Lilly reported for the fourth quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: $2.49 adjusted vs. $2.22 expectedRevenue: $9.35 billion vs. $8.93 billion expected

Eli Lilly posted net income of $2.19 billion, or $2.42 a share, for the fourth quarter. That compares with a profit of $1.94 billion, or $2.14 a share, a year earlier. 

Excluding one-time items associated with the value of intangible assets, among other adjustments, the company posted a per-share profit of $2.49 cents for the fourth quarter of 2023.

The pharmaceutical giant booked fourth-quarter revenue of $9.35 billion, up 28% from the same period a year ago.

Eli Lilly also issued its full-year forecast for 2024, which was generally in line with expectations.

The company expects full-year adjusted earnings of $12.20 to $12.70 per share. Eli Lilly also forecast 2024 revenue of $40.4 billion to $41.6 billion.

Analysts surveyed by LSEG expected full-year adjusted earnings of $12.43 per share and sales of $39.38 billion.

Shares of Eli Lilly jumped almost 60% last year as weight loss drugs skyrocketed in popularity despite hefty price tags, mixed insurance coverage and a handful of unpleasant side effects. With a market cap of roughly $673 billion, Eli Lilly is the largest pharmaceutical company based in the U.S. 

Higher prices for older drugs, particularly Mounjaro, helped drive up Eli Lilly’s revenue, the company said. Mounjaro booked $2.21 billion in sales for the fourth quarter, up from just $279.2 million in the same period a year ago. 

Analysts had expected the drug to bring in $1.73 billion in worldwide sales, according to estimates compiled by FactSet.

That increase reflects increased demand but also “higher realized prices” in the U.S. due to decreased use of Eli Lilly’s savings card programs as access to the drug continued to expand during the quarter, the company said. The savings card programs aim to help lower the out-of-pocket costs for drugs like Mounjaro for patients.

Revenue growth was also driven by sales of Eli Lilly’s breast cancer pill Verzenio, which rose 42% to $1.15 billion for the quarter due to increased demand and higher prices.

Those results came in under analysts’ expectations, however, which called for $1.18 billion in sales for the period. 

Sales of Jardiance, a tablet that lowers blood sugar in Type 2 diabetes patients, climbed 30% to $798.1 million for the fourth quarter. Analysts had expected $771.8 million in sales from Jardiance. 

Jardiance, which Eli Lilly shares with Boehringer Ingelheim, is among the first 10 drugs selected to face price negotiations with the federal Medicare program. Those price talks heated up last week after Medicare sent its initial price offers for each drug to the manufacturers. 

Meanwhile, Eli Lilly said higher prices were offset by lower prices of its other diabetes medicine Trulicity and insulin product Humalog.

Trulicity reported $1.67 billion in revenue, down 14% from the same period a year ago. Analysts had expected Trulicity to rake in $1.77 billion in sales for the quarter. 

Humalog saw $366.6 million in revenue for the quarter, down 33% from the year-ago period. Analysts had expected the medicine to book $438 million in sales, according to FactSet.

That decrease isn’t a surprise: Last year, Eli Lilly said it would cut prices of Humalog and another commonly prescribed insulin by 70% and cap monthly out-of-pocket costs at $35 at certain retail pharmacies for people who have private insurance starting May 1, 2023.

Eli Lilly will hold an earnings call with investors at 10:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday. 

Executives will likely be asked about whether the company has made more progress in addressing the supply issues plaguing its weight loss and diabetes drugs. 

There may also be questions related to the timing of the FDA’s decision on Eli Lilly’s experimental Alzheimer’s drug, donanemab, which significantly slowed the progression of the memory-robbing disease in patients at the early stages of it.

The company did not mention the drug in its earnings release.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

Shares of Facebook parent company Meta surged Friday, after the firm reported a threefold jump in fourth-quarter profit and issued its first-ever dividend.

As of around 6 a.m. ET, the stock price of Meta was up roughly 17% in U.S. premarket trading.

Revenue jumped 25% in the fourth quarter for Meta, from $32.2 billion a year earlier. That’s the fastest rate of growth for any period since mid-2021, and comes amid a rebound in the online ad market. Meta’s net income more than tripled, to $14 billion from $4.65 billion a year earlier.

Meta said it would pay investors a dividend of 50 cents a share on March 26, in the company’s first-ever cash dividend. That comes after cash and equivalents swelled to $65.4 billion at the end of 2023, from $40.7 billion a year earlier.

Meta also announced a $50 billion share buyback.

Investors praised the dividend announcement.

Ben Barringer, technology analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said this represented a “symbolic moment and indicates what a turnaround story Meta has been on since its struggles in 2022.”

“Mark Zuckerberg is showing that he wants to bring shareholders along with him and is highlighting that Meta is now a mature, grown-up business,” Barringer said in emailed comments.

Investors have also been focusing on Meta’s moves in the artificial intelligence space. The company has a stake in the ground in AI with its LLaMA large language model, a competitor to Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s GPT-4.

Barringer called Meta a “closet AI winner” and said the company’s AI, while not out in show, “will be better servicing advertisers and making the ads themselves more relevant for users.”

Cash dividends are a rare step for technology companies, which tend to be valued by investors on their ability to achieve high growth rates that requires cash investments back into the business.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a big push for 2023 to be a “year of efficiency” for the company.

Several investors had questioned its ventures in 2022 into areas like virtual reality and the metaverse, which was an incredibly costly initiative for the company.

Meta has been deep in cost-cutting mode over the last year or so, in response to the changing tide of sentiment around formerly much-loved technology stocks.

Those cost-cutting steps appear to have paid off. Meta reported a doubling of its operating margin, to 41%.

Meanwhile, the company’s expenses decreased 8% year over year to $23.73 billion. That’s as Meta slashed headcount dramatically, laying off 20,000 people during 2023.

Sales in Meta’s Reality Labs unit passed $1 billion in the fourth quarter, Meta said, though the virtual reality unit recorded $4.65 billion in losses.

– CNBC’s Jonathan Vanian contributed to this report

DETROIT — General Motors beat Wall Street’s top- and bottom-line expectations for the fourth quarter, while forecasting another strong year despite potential economic and sales head winds.

The Detroit automaker’s 2024 guidance calls for net income attributable to stockholders of $9.8 billion to $11.2 billion, or $8.50 to $9.50 earnings per share; adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $12 billion to $14 billion, or $8.50 to $9.50 adjusted EPS; and adjusted automotive free cash flow between $8 billion and $10 billion.

The earnings guidance is largely better than GM’s 2023 results and in line or higher than many Wall Street analysts’ expectations of flat results compared with 2023.

Here’s how the company performed in the fourth quarter, compared with average estimates compiled by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:

Adjusted earnings per share: $1.24 versus $1.16, estimatedRevenue: $42.98 billion versus $38.67 billion, estimated

For the fourth quarter, GM reported net income for stockholders of $2.1 billion, or $1.59 per share, compared with $2 billion, or $1.39 per share a year earlier. Adjusting for one-time items, GM earned $1.24 per share, topping Wall Street expectations.

Revenue was largely flat year over year, at $42.98 billion compared with $43.11 billion for the final three months of 2022.

GM’s full-year 2023 revenue was about up 10% compared with the prior year, at $171.84 billion, with net income attributable to stockholders of $10.13 billion and adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of $12.36 billion. That compares with 2022 revenue of $156.74 billion, net income attributable to stockholders of $9.93 billion and adjusted EBIT of $14.47 billion.

“As we begin 2024, I believe GM is well positioned for another year of strong financial performance,” GM CFO Paul Jacobson told media during a call to discuss the results.

GM’s 2023 earnings included several special charges, including $1.1 billion in North American strike costs and $792 million charge for new commercial agreements between GM and LG Electronics and LG Energy Solution.

Shares of GM are down less than 2% this year after rising about 7% last year, lifted by an accelerated $10 billion share repurchase program that was announced in late November.

GM’s North American adjusted earnings were off 45% during the fourth quarter from a year earlier to $2.01 billion. Its international operations declined by 1.1% to $269 million.

China – GM’s second-largest market – continued to struggle, with a 34% decline in equity income for the year to $446 million, including a 54% drop during the fourth quarter.

Jacobson said GM expects its China operations this year to be roughly flat from last, including an anticipated loss in the first quarter.

“The team is doing a good job of managing through a challenging situation but we’re going to have a tough first quarter,” he said.

For the year, GM’s North American operations were off 5.3% to $12.31 billion, while international operations were up 5.9% to $1.21 billion.

GM expects to spend roughly $1 billion less this year on its majority-owned autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise. In 2023 it spent $2.7 billion on the embattled business unit, excluding special items such as severance packages for layoffs.

Cruise remains under several state and federal investigations following an Oct. 2 accident involving a pedestrian in San Francisco.

GM CEO Mary Barra, who chairs Cruise’s board, said officials have “already begun to implement significant changes” at Cruise following the findings of internal, third-party probes into the incident and operations.

Cruise and GM last week released findings of internal investigations that outlined cultural issues, regulatory ineptitude and poor leadership at the company, but found that officials did not intentionally deceive or mislead regulators.

The companies also disclosed Cruise remains under investigation by several entities, including the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“At Cruise, we are committed to earning back the trust of regulators and the public through our commitments and our actions,” Barra said in a letter to shareholders Tuesday.

Both Barra and Jacobson acknowledged that the adoption of electric vehicles in the U.S. has been slower than originally expected but said the company remains committed to expanding its EV lineup and sales in 2024.

“Consensus is growing that the U.S. economy, the job market and auto sales will continue to be resilient, and at GM, we expect healthy industry sales of about 16 million units with the mix of EVs continuing to grow,” Barra said.

The automaker last year pulled its near-term sales guidance for EVs but maintained plans to add 1 million units worth of EV production capacity in North America and achieve a mid-single-digit EBIT EV margin, both by 2025.

GM’s EV sales totaled 75,883 units, or 2.9% of the company’s overall sales, last year. A vast majority of those were sales of its now discontinued Chevrolet Bolt models.

The company has experienced problems in ramping up production of its newer “Ultium” EVs, including a major issue with battery module assembly.

GM has said it plans to keep its North American plants “flexible” to produce EVs and traditional vehicles with internal combustion engines, based on consumer demand.

This is breaking news. Please check back for additional updates.

— CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

LVMH shares jumped more than 12% on Friday morning, after the world’s largest luxury group posted higher-than-expected sales for 2023 and raised its annual dividend.

The owner of Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon and Hennessy, as well as brands including Givenchy, Bulgari and Sephora, on Thursday night reported sales amounting to 86.15 billion euros ($93.34 billion) for 2023, exceeding consensus forecasts and equating to 13% organic growth from the previous year.

Organic revenue was up 10% in the fourth quarter.

The result was boosted in particular by 14% annual growth in the critical fashion and leather goods sector, along with 11% growth in perfumes and cosmetics. Wines and spirits meanwhile posted a 4% decline.

“Our performance in 2023 illustrates the exceptional appeal of our Maisons and their ability to spark desire, despite a year affected by economic and geopolitical challenges,” Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, said in a statement.

“While remaining vigilant in the current context, we enter 2024 with confidence, backed by our highly desirable brands and our agile teams.”

After a boom during the pandemic, the luxury sector endured a rough end to 2023 as challenging geopolitical and macroeconomic conditions weighed on consumer spending, particularly in the U.S. and China.

LVMH in April 2023 became the first European company to surpass $500 billion in market value, but a share price decline over the last six months allowed it to be eclipsed as Europe’s largest company by Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk.

British luxury brand Burberry earlier this month issued a profit warning in response to slowing demand, as the balloon in high-end spending that peaked during the pandemic loses air. At the time, the news sent Burberry shares plunging and dragged down the wider sector.

Yet luxury stocks broadly advanced on Thursday as investors took heart from LVMH’s reassuring results. Burberry’s own shares were up 1.7% Friday morning.

Javier Gonzalez Lastra, portfolio manager of the Tema Luxury ETF, told CNBC on Thursday that investors are trying to gauge where the bottom of the earnings cycle revision is for the luxury sector. He predicted that earnings are “likely to get tougher” through the first half of 2024 because of last year’s unusually high annual comparisons.

Arnault, however, is pinning some hope on LVMH’s partnership with the Paris 2024 Olympics, which he said “provides a new opportunity to reinforce our global leadership position in luxury goods and promote France’s reputation for excellence around the world.

Elon Musk said Chinese electric automakers will find “significant” success outside of China, even as his firm Tesla faces intense competition from these same companies.

“The Chinese car companies are the most competitive car companies in the world. So, I think they will have significant success outside of China depending on what kind of tariffs or trade barriers are established,” Musk said on Tesla’s earnings call on Wednesday.

“Frankly, I think, if there are not trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other companies in the world.”

It’s not the first time Musk has heaped praise on Chinese EV makers. Last year, the billionaire called Chinese EV firms “the most competitive in the world” and said they are likely to be among the world’s top auto companies.

“If I were to guess … probably some company out of China is the most likely to be second to Tesla,” Musk said.

Tesla’s own shares slid in pre-market trade on Thursday, after the company posted earnings that missed expectations and warned of a slowdown in 2024.