Eric Criscuolo
Market Strategist

August 28, 2025 at 9:15 a.m. EST

Yesterday while markets awaited Nvidia’s results after the close the S&P 500 traded in a tight range, rising 0.2% to close around its highs. The equal-weight slightly outperformed and Russell outpaced both of them, up 0.6%. Nvidia then hit the tape, and neither a comet hit the earth nor angels sung from heaven. Top and bottom lines beat consensus and the guide was above as well. Overall sales grew 56% YoY on a $30B base. As management noted, “Blackwell Ultra is ramping at full speed and demand is extraordinary”. However the headline beats were modest and expectations were stratospheric anyway, so the stock is trading around flat in the pre-market. S&P futures are slightly higher, while Russell futures are up 0.5%, hinting a continuation of the rotation trade. The yield curve is flattening as the 30yr is down 2bp, the 10y is flat and the 2yr is up 3bp following revised GDP numbers this morning, in which growth was moved higher and PCE lower. July’s PCE data will be out tomorrow in a closely watched update. Weekly jobless claims came in slightly below estimates (229K vs. 230K) and ticked down from last week, the same with continuing claims. The data continues on its trend, with initial claims relatively low and continuing claims at the high-end of the recent range but not breaking out and triggering deeper concern. This continues the narrative that employers are not cutting jobs but also not hiring. 2Q GDP was revised higher. Beyond Nvidia, it was busy 12 hours for earnings. On the tech side, PureStorage and Snowflake are up over 10% in the pre-market. Retailer results were generally solid. Burlington, Dollar General, Best Buy and Five-Below are trading higher.