Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Nvidia is a company that makes computer chips. On Friday its share price went to a new record.
The company is now worth more than 5.7 trillion dollars. That is a very big number.
The whole stock market went up too. The Dow went up half a percent. The Nasdaq went up more than one percent.
People are waiting for Nvidia to share its new results soon.
- chip
- a very small part inside a computer
- share
- a small piece of a company that people can buy
- record
- the best number ever
- trillion
- one thousand billion
- stock market
- a place where people buy and sell shares
- percent
- a part of one hundred
- results
- the numbers a company reports
- company
- a business
Level 2 — Elementary
Shares of Nvidia hit a record high on Friday. The price touched about 237.88 dollars, and the company's value passed 5.7 trillion dollars.
The rise helped the whole market. The Dow gained about 0.5 percent, the S&P 500 gained about 0.7 percent, and the Nasdaq rose about 1.2 percent.
Traders were happy because a weak jobs report made it more likely that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates the same at its October meeting.
Investors are now waiting for Nvidia's earnings report. Options prices suggest the stock could move about 5.5 percent after the news.
- record high
- the highest price ever reached
- market value
- the total price of all of a company's shares
- trader
- a person who buys and sells shares
- interest rate
- the cost of borrowing money
- earnings
- the profit a company makes
- investor
- a person who puts money into something to make more money
- jobs report
- a monthly report about how many people have work
- meeting
- a time when people come together to decide things
Level 3 — Intermediate
Nvidia shares surged to an all-time intraday high of about 237.88 dollars on Friday, lifting the chipmaker's market capitalization above 5.7 trillion dollars as investors kept piling into artificial intelligence stocks.
Wall Street rallied broadly. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed roughly 0.5 percent, the S&P 500 about 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq Composite about 1.2 percent, helped by technology gains and a drop in oil prices.
The catalyst was a weaker than expected September jobs report, which reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve will hold rates steady at its October meeting. Lower bond yields tend to favor growth stocks such as Nvidia.
Attention now turns to Nvidia's quarterly results. Options markets are pricing in a move of about 5.5 percent in either direction, a reminder that even a record run can reverse quickly on a single report.
- intraday
- happening within a single trading day
- market capitalization
- the total value of a company's shares
- rally
- a rise in prices after a period of decline or stability
- catalyst
- something that causes a change
- hold steady
- to keep unchanged
- yield
- the income an investment earns
- pricing in
- reflecting an expected event in a price
- reverse
- to change to the opposite direction
Level 4 — Advanced
Nvidia extended its extraordinary run on Friday, touching an all-time intraday high near 237.88 dollars and nudging its market capitalization beyond 5.7 trillion dollars, as a broad rally on Wall Street rewarded the sector at the heart of the artificial intelligence boom.
Equities advanced across the board: the Dow gained roughly half a percent, the S&P 500 about 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq Composite about 1.2 percent. A softer September employment report cemented bets that the Federal Reserve will stay its hand in October, while crude eased on talk of additional stockpile releases.
Falling yields are particularly flattering to long duration growth names, whose distant profits are discounted less harshly when borrowing costs ebb. That arithmetic helps explain why a poor jobs print can paradoxically lift the most richly valued companies.
The euphoria carries a caveat. Options markets imply a swing of about 5.5 percent in either direction when Nvidia reports, and with expectations this elevated, anything short of a decisive beat risks turning a record into a cautionary tale.
- extraordinary
- very unusual or remarkable
- equities
- company shares
- stay its hand
- to decide not to act
- duration
- here, the sensitivity of a stock's value to interest rates
- ebb
- to decline gradually
- paradoxically
- in a way that seems contradictory
- euphoria
- a feeling of intense excitement
- caveat
- a warning or condition