US Dollar supported by geopolitics and Nvidia

• The US Dollar recovers after after a volatile Tuesday. 
• Markets are favoring risk-on ahead of the much anticipated Nvidia earnings. 
• The US Dollar index trades up in the 106.50 area, still looking for support to bounce off from. 

The US Dollar (USD) recovers on Wednesday, with the DXY Index trading around 106.5, as market sentiment turns risk-on ahead of the Nvidia earnings release after the US closing bell. Overnight in the US session, markets reversed the initial concerns about the escalated situation between Russia and Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he is open to a peace deal brokered by President-elect Donald Trump. 

The US economic calendar is still rather empty on Wednesday, except for the weekly Mortgage Applications data. The focus shifts to the Federal Reserve (Fed), with four Fed speakers set to release comments for the markets. That December interest-rate cut remains in limbo, with traders unsure whether the Fed will stick to its previous commitment to cutting rates in December again. 

Daily digest market movers: Nvidia market moving

• Geopolitical headlines on Ukraine and Russia point to an easing of tensions after Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that he would be open to a ceasefire discussion with President-elect Donald Trump, Reuters reports.
• At 12:00 GMT, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released the weekly Mortgage Applications. This week’s number came in at 1.7% against last week’s numbers, which was an increase of 0.5%. 
• Near 15:00 GMT, Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr testifies about the oversight of prudential regulators before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington DC.
• Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook delivers a speech about the US economic outlook and monetary policy at the University of Virginia Department of Economics in Charlottesville, Virginia at 16:00 GMT.
• Near 17:15 GMT, Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman delivers a speech about "approach to agency policymaking" at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach, Florida.
• Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Susan Collins delivers remarks and participates in a conversation at an event organized by the Ford School in Ann Arbor, Michigan at 21:00 GMT.
• Equities have shrugged off the drag of the geopolitical headlines from Tuesday and are in positive spirits ahead of the Nvidia earnings release after the US closing bell. European stocks are up with US equity futures following suit. 
• The CME FedWatch Tool is pricing in another 25 basis points (bps) rate cut by the Fed at the December 18 meeting by 59.1%. A 40.9% chance is for rates to remain unchanged. While the rate-cut scenario is the most probable, traders have significantly pared back some of the rate-cut bets compared with a week ago.
• The US 10-year benchmark rate trades at 4.42%, sliding further away from the high printed on Friday at 4.50%.

US Dollar Index Technical Analysis: Risk in balance 

The US Dollar Index (DXY) edges up slightly in the mid-106.00 region on the daily chart. Markets have let the dust settle on the geopolitical headlines from Tuesday and are eagerly awaiting the Nvidia earnings later this Wednesday. As Trump trade is starting to unwind, the DXY might need to look for lower support in order to attract buyers. 

After a brief test and a firm rejection last Thursday, the 107.00 round level remains in play. A fresh yearly high has already been reached at 107.07, which is the static level to beat. Further up, a fresh two-year high could be reached if 107.35 is broken. 

On the downside, a fresh set of support is coming live. The first level is 105.93, the closing from November 12. A touch lower, the pivotal 105.53 (April 11 high) should avoid any downturns towards 104.00. 

US Dollar Index: Daily Chart

Nvidia FAQs

What is Nvidia known for?

Nvidia is the leading fabless designer of graphics processing units or GPUs. These sophisticated devices allow computers to better process graphics for display interfaces by accelerating computer memory and RAM. This is especially true in the world of video games, where Nvidia graphics cards became a mainstay of the industry. Additionally, Nvidia is well-known as the creator of its CUDA API that allows developers to create software for a number of industries using its parallel computing platform. Nvidia chips are leading products in the data center, supercomputing and artificial intelligence industries. The company is also viewed as one of the inventors of the system-on-a-chip design.

What is the history of Nvidia?

Current CEO Jensen Huang founded Nvidia with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem in 1993. All three founders were semiconductor engineers, who had previously worked at AMD, Sun Microsystems, IBM and Hewlett-Packard. The team set out to build more proficient GPUs than currently existed in the market and largely succeeded by late 1990s. The company was founded with $40,000 but secured $20 million in funding from Sequoia Capital venture fund early on. Nvidia went public in 1999 under the ticker NVDA. Nvidia became a leading designer of chips to the data center, PC, automotive and mobile markets through its close relationship with Taiwan Semiconductor.

What is Nvidia’s relationship to artificial intelligence?

In 2022, Nvidia released its ninth-generation data center GPU called the H100. This GPU is specifically designed with the needs of artificial intelligence applications in mind. For instance, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4 large language models (LLMs) rely on the H100’s high efficiency in parallel processing to execute a high number of commands quickly. The chip is said to speed up networks by six times Nvidia’s previous A100 chip and is based on the new Hopper architecture. The H100 chip contains 80 billion transistors. Nvidia’s market cap reached $1 trillion in May 2023 largely on the promise of its H100 chip becoming the “picks and shovels” of the coming AI revolution. In June 2024, Nvidia's market capitalization crossed the $3 trillion mark.

Why does Jensen Huang have a cult following?

Long-time CEO Jense Huang has a cult following in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street due to his strict loyalty and determination to build Nvidia into one of the world’s leading companies. Nvidia neary fell apart on several occasions, but each time Huang bet everything on a new technology that turned out to be the ticket to the company’s success. Huang is seen as a visionary in Silicon Valley, and his company is at the forefront of most major breakthroughs in computer processing. Huang is known for his enthusiastic keynote addresses at annual Nvidia GTC conferences, as well as his love of black leather jackets and Denny’s, the fast food chain where the company was founded.

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