LONDON/SINGAPORE, Feb 26 (Reuters): World stocks were at all-time highs on Thursday as nerves around AI disruption continued to fade, while Japan's yen regained its footing after its latest flop and gold ticked higher ahead of talks between the US and Iran.
A dive back into tech after Nvidia's results overnight had lifted Japan's Nikkei and South Korea's KOSPI to record highs in Asia, although Europe's restart was more muted after mixed news there.
London Stock Exchange Group's beaten-up shares jumped over 5 per cent as it announced a $4.1 billion buyback plan, whereas Belgian chemicals maker Syensqo's tanked almost 22 per cent after it posted disappointing earnings.
Traders were still digesting Nvidia's numbers too, after the world's most valuable company had delivered first-quarter revenue guidance of a whopping $78 billion, betting on Big Tech's unabated spending on its AI processors.
An initially positive US market reaction faded by the end of extended hours there after the company's conference call offered limited detail on the revenue outlook and batted away talk of a cash return.
Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid said the reaction was "perhaps a sign of investors' increased anxiety over AI valuations," especially given Nvidia had delivered 73 per cent year-over-year revenue growth with 75 per cent gross margins.
Back in Europe, Britain's pound was sinking towards $1.35 in the currency markets as voting kicked off in an election for a vacated parliament seat that will be an acid test for the country's struggling Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Starmer's party won the seat easily in the most recent national elections, but a series of recent blows mean it is now in a dogfight to retain it against right-wing populist Nigel Farage's Reform UK party as well as the left-leaning Greens.
"You don't meet a lot of people who ask should I be buying the pound," Societe Generale's Kit Juckes said.
"But they (Labour) have got such a big majority and we are not going to get a national election," he said, adding the bigger focus was how Britain's economic growth rates fare.
