European Shares Seen Tad Higher As Nvidia Smashes Earnings Expectations

(RTTNews) - European stocks are seen opening a tad higher on Thursday after Nvidia said its revenue more than tripled, and profits rose nine-fold.

The A.I. chip maker also projected that its revenue would more than triple again, driven by robust demand for its specialized and costly semiconductors.

Asian stocks traded higher, with Japanese markets scaling to a record peak on expectations that a weak currency will bolster exporters' earnings.

Chinese and Hong Kong markets were seeing modest gains after China's securities watchdog banned major institutional investors from reducing equity holdings at the open and close of each trading day.

Elsewhere, Japan's factory and service sector activity data for February disappointed while elsewhere the Bank of Korea held its policy rate steady, as widely expected.

The dollar stemmed recent losses and gold ticked up slightly while oil edged up after settling down about 1 percent Wednesday on demand concerns.

European and U.S. PMI data along with U.S. reports on initial jobless claims and existing home sales may garner investor attention later in the day.

U.S. stocks ended mixed overnight as Nvidia earnings loomed and minutes from the Federal Reserve's Jan. 30-31 meeting revealed most officials remain wary of cutting interest rates "too quickly," fearing progress on inflation could stall out. The Dow and the S&P 500 recovered from earlier losses to end about 0.1 percent higher while the the-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.3 percent to extend losses for the third straight session.

European stocks also ended mixed on Wednesday as investors weighed improved Eurozone consumer confidence data against disappointing earnings updates from U.K. mining and banking heavyweights.

The pan European STOXX 600 eased 0.2 percent. The German DAX edged up 0.3 percent and France's CAC 40 added 0.2 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 shed 0.7 percent.