London stocks were set to rise at the open on Thursday following well-received third-quarter results from US chipmaker and AI bellwether Nvidia, as investors eyed the release of the delayed non-farm payrolls report.
The FTSE 100 was called to open around 60 points higher.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said: "I had no doubt that Nvidia was about to dump another set of impressive - and record-breaking - results. There was also very little doubt about its capacity to beat expectations. Indeed, Nvidia respected the fairly odd trend of beating the average revenue consensus by around $2bn by announcing $57bn in revenue - a 62% growth from the same time last year. Data-centre revenue surpassed the $50bn mark, and earnings per share came in higher than expected, as well.
"But more impressively - yet perfectly consistent with his earlier comments - Jensen Huang said that 'Blackwell sales are off the charts'. The company now expects revenue to grow to $65bn this quarter. That was higher than analysts expected, but still in line with Huang's earlier claim that they have already sold around $500bn worth of Rubin and Blackwell chips for this year and next. In short, there was nothing in yesterday's quarterly report that sounded off. Nvidia did what it has done best since 2023: it surprised to the upside.
"And the bulls couldn't resist. The share price jumped 5%. What might have made a difference in the market's reaction is Huang saying that 'we've entered the virtuous cycle of AI. The AI ecosystem is scaling fast - with more new foundation model makers, more AI startups, across more industries and in more countries. AI is going everywhere, doing everything, all at once'."
Looking ahead to the rest of the day, all eyes will be on the long-awaited non-farm payrolls report for September, along with the unemployment rate and average earnings, all due a 1330 GMT.
In UK corporate news, JD Sports Fashion cut its full-year outlook after weakening economic conditions weighed on trading.
Updating on third-quarter sales, the retailer said it now expected annual pre-tax profits before adjusting items to come in at the lower end of market expectations.
It blamed rising unemployment levels and softer consumer sentiment in its key markets.
Miniature wargames manufacturer Games Workshop said that core revenues for the six months ending 30 November were expected to be no less than £310m at actual exchange rates, up from £269.4m a year earlier.
Licensing revenue was expected to come in at no less than £16m, down from £30.1m in the prior period, while pre-tax profits were seen reaching at least £135m, compared to £126.8m last year.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the expanded usage of AstraZeneca's Koselugo drug to adults with neurofibromatosis type 1 - a rare, progressive, genetic condition that can impact every organ system.
The positive development was based on the KOMET Phase III trial, which showed a 20% overall response rate in tumour size reduction.
Marc Dunoyer, head of AstraZeneca's rare disease division Alexion, said the approval was a "major step forward for NF patients everywhere".