Record Nvidia and beyond, today's markets in 4 points

Global stock markets are on the verge of a week of gains, with euphoria sparked by Nvidia's results triggering a wave of record highs from Asia to Europe and the United States.
During the regular session on Wall Street, the main indexes stood out with a rally fueled by the tech giant.
The chipmaker rose 16%, taking advantage of winning quarterly results.
The S&P 500 Index gained 2.11% and posted its best day since January 2023, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.96% to show its best-performing session since February 2023.
The high-content index tech is within striking distance of its record closing of 16,057.44, set in November 2021.
The 30-stock Dow closed at all-time highs, gaining 1.18%.
Japan is closed for holidays, but Nikkei futures rose nearly 1%, suggesting Japanese stocks will extend their record run next week.
Chinese indices ended the session on the rise.
In this context, today investors are focused on at least 4 key themes, which can influence the markets.
1.
Nvidia boom drags everyone All three major US stock indexes hit new record highs on Thursday, as Nvidia's results reignited confidence that breakthroughs in artificial intelligence will boost profits and give stock prices further room for maneuver.
read also Nvidia, are we at the end of the rally or is it just a new beginning? The S&P 500 hit its 12th record close of 2024, the Nasdaq 100 rose 3%, while the Dow Jones eclipsed 39,000 for the first time.
At the same time, Nvidia shares added about $277 billion to market capitalization, surpassing the $197 billion gain made by Facebook parent Meta, earlier in the month.
In Asia, South Korea's Hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker that counts Nvidia as a key customer, jumped 2.2% and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co rose 1%.
The Global X Asia semiconductor ETF rose 0.9%.
“The Nvidia effect has made inroads into global stock markets and breathed fresh wind into markets that looked ominously poised for a 3-5% decline,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone in Melbourne.
2.
Fed and ECB cautious Three senior Federal Reserve officials reiterated on Thursday that the central bank is still on track to cut interest rates this year, but not anytime soon.
Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson and Governor Lisa Cook said they were optimistic that inflation was cooling despite January's dip, but made it clear they wanted more evidence of a return to their 2% target before cutting costs.
of financing.
Gov.
Christopher Waller said January's jump in consumer prices warrants caution in deciding when to start cutting rates.
The cautious tone is the same that emerged from the ECB minutes published yesterday.
There are no certain dates on the decrease in the cost of money in the Eurozone.
3.
Danger of default The United States and China are discussing new measures to prevent a wave of sovereign defaults in emerging markets, according to reports reported by Bloomberg.
It would be one of the most significant attempts in recent years at economic cooperation between the rival superpowers.
The talks – including ways to preemptively extend borrowing periods before countries default on payments – are generally aimed both at easing the burden of servicing the more than $400 billion annual debt on poor nations and at finding a alternative to the high debt rates that these states are now facing on the market.
The issue of financial and economic instability in some areas of the world is not negligible, especially if we add to it the issue of the climate bomb ready to explode.
4.
Decline Germany The latest data from the German Federal Statistical Office showed that Germany's GDP for the fourth quarter (Q4) contracted by 0.3% quarter-on-quarter and 0.2% year-on-year in fourth quarter.
Both data were in line with market expectations and confirmed a technical recession.
The decline of the German economy continues, as also shown yesterday by the disappointing results of the manufacturing sector.
read also Germany increasingly "sick of Europe".
The industry gets worse, the data