Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., speaks to members of the media following the company’s “Japan AI Ecosystem” reception in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, July 16, 2026. <\/p>\n
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Hello, this is Leonie Kidd coming to you from London. <\/p>\n
Nvidia is carrying the weight of the AI world on its shoulders. But, with sky-high earnings expectations, can the group led by CEO Jensen Huang actually impress investors?<\/p>\n
Read on.<\/p>\n
What you need to know today<\/p>\n Nvidia<\/a> will report earnings after the bell on Wall Street on Wednesday. The AI darling’s blockbuster performance over the last year has driven earnings forecasts higher, adding to the so-called\u00a0“expectations premium”<\/a> Nvidia now needs to surpass. <\/p>\n The Street is projecting an eye-watering set of second-quarter sales at over $92 billion, according to FactSet. Cantor Fitzgerald<\/a> highlighted consensus third-quarter sales expectations of $103.7 billion in a Saturday report.<\/p>\n Over the last year, Nvidia has beaten expectations across all topline metrics, but shares have been sold down the following trading day, according to Bespoke Data. <\/p>\n Hyperscaling test<\/p>\n This quarter, there is one persistent concern among investors: Nvidia’s dependence on the hyperscalers<\/a>. The company now reports earnings in a way that separates these hyperscalers into its AI cloud, industrial and enterprise pack. Investors have voiced worries about this concentrated dependence on Amazon<\/a>, Google<\/a> and Microsoft<\/a>. <\/p>\n Nvidia fell 2.9% on Monday, dropping for a seventh straight day, the longest losing streak since 2022. Shares ended the day 2.2% higher on Tuesday.<\/p>\n For CNBC’s Jim Cramer’s view on how Nvidia’s earnings have become a “referendum on the entire AI trade,” read more here<\/a>. <\/p>\n Crude in the redRetaliation time<\/p>\n Canada has outlined “dollar-for-dollar” retaliatory tariffs<\/a> that it will impose on over $20 billion of U.S. goods, after trade talks broke down with the Trump administration. <\/p>\n The counter-tariffs range from 15% to 50% and target a wide array of Canadian imports from the U.S., including dairy, seafood, appliances, wood and paper products, and clothes.<\/p>\n Among the most significant are 50% tariffs on American steel and aluminum, doubling the current rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Bessent Bid<\/p>\n The so-called “debasement trade”<\/a> has found a second wind following Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s intervention in the bond market. <\/p>\n In this environment, assets like crypto and precious metals gain as investors look to hedge against the weaker U.S. dollar and Treasury debt. <\/p>\n \u2014 Leonie Kidd<\/p>\n And Finally…<\/p>\n