US stocks opened higher on Thursday after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. — the world’s largest chip maker — reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings on Thursday, which came from continued demand from the artificial intelligence industry.
By 09:44 Greek time (13:44 Greek time), the benchmark S&P 500 had gained 18 points, or 0.3%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 81 points, or 0.5%, and the industrial average the 30-stock Dow Jones had gained 164 points, or 0.4%.
TSMC’s revenue beats estimates
TSMC posted a net profit of $325.26 billion ($10.1 billion) in the three months to Sept. 30, it said in a press release. The figure was higher than Reuters estimates of T$300.2 billion.
The chipmaker also provided an upbeat outlook for the current quarter, citing in part improved capacity utilization. The Taiwanese company’s US-listed shares jumped more than 10%.
Third-quarter revenue climbed to t$759.69 billion, up 39% from last year. Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said fourth-quarter revenue will be between $26.1 billion and $26.9 billion, with a gross margin of 57 percent and 59 percent, while annual revenue is also expected to rise about 30 percent.
Sales were mainly boosted by TSMC’s advanced 3-nanometer chips, which accounted for 20% of total wafer revenue, the company said.
“We continue to see extremely strong AI-related demand from our customers,” noted CEO C.C. Wei on a webcast after the results.
Thursday’s earnings come just days after semiconductor equipment maker ASML ( NASDAQ:ASML ) revealed a tepid sales outlook for 2025, in part due to sluggish chip demand from sectors outside of artificial intelligence.
Profits parade, retail sales in focus
Streaming giant Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) will report earnings on Thursday, along with fund manager Blackstone (NYSE:BX) and biotech company Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG).
These precede results from tech titans Alphabet ( NASDAQ:GOOGL ) and Tesla ( NASDAQ:TSLA ) in the first half of next week, along with several other major U.S. companies.
Attention this Thursday also focused on retail sales for more clues about the US economy, with confidence growing that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at a slower pace in coming months.
On a monthly basis, retail sales in the world’s largest economy rose 0.4 percent, accelerating from an unrevised 0.1 percent gain in August, Commerce Department data showed. Economists had seen the reading at 0.3%.
Robust spending on items such as groceries and clothing helped offset weakness in spending on higher-priced goods such as furniture and electronics.
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Reference;
Kanowsky, S. (2024) S&P 500, Nasdaq open higher after TSMC profits beat forecasts By Investing.com, Investing.com. Investing.com. Available at: https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/us-stock-futures-edge-lower-with-tsmc-earnings-on-tap-3667541 (Accessed: 17 October 2024).
