European stock markets are heading for a higher open Thursday, as investors assess an above-consensus quarterly earnings report from chipmaker Nvidia.
The U.S.-listed firm, which makes products for tech giants including Microsoft, Google, Meta and Amazon, said sales growth this quarter will remain above 50% in a sign of the continued resilience of the artificial intelligence boom. Fiscal second-quarter revenue came in just above expectations, at $46.74 billion.
The company’s shares nevertheless slipped in after hours trading after data center revenue missed estimates and concerns rose over the future of Nvidia’s China sales.
In Europe, French spirits giant Pernod Ricard reported a 3% decline in sales for the full-year. Performance was pulled down by weak consumer sentiment in China and tariff uncertainty in the U.S. impacting distributor inventories.
In the auto sector, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association showed European Union new car registrations rose by an annual 7.4% in July, notching a 39.1% increase in the number of battery-electric vehicles.
The figures highlighted the strong year-to-date growth of Chinese EV-maker BYD, which has recorded a 290.6% hike in new registrations over the January-July period, by far the highest of any manufacturer. European – including U.K. – registrations for BYD’s U.S. rival Tesla are down 33.6% over the same stretch, according to the EAMA.
EU consumer and economic sentiment figures are due out later on Thursday, ahead of inflation prints from France, Germany, Spain and Italy on Friday.
— CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this report.