Trading results for 5 February 2025
Wednesday's trading session was turbulent and sluggish, with investors deeply concerned about U.S.-China trade relations. However, much to everyone’s relief, the market managed to steer in the right direction and ended with modest gains. At the start of the day, few would have dared to predict a classic American happy ending.
The main trading session opened on a negative note, largely due to Alphabet’s (GOOGL, -7.29%) quarterly earnings report and its plans to spend an eye-watering $75 billion on capital expenditures. Meanwhile, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, -6.27%) reported lower-than-expected Q4 profits. Unsurprisingly, these two major players turned out to be the biggest losers of the day, attempting to drag the entire market down with them. Fortunately, they did not succeed.
Market participants managed to counterbalance the negativity, gradually improving the situation. Indexes climbed steadily throughout the day, driven primarily by strong demand for NVidia (NVDA, +5.21%) shares. Investors actively bought NVDA stock, which had been significantly sold off in recent weeks, particularly after the DeepSeek storm battered AI-related stocks.
NVDA shares had dropped over 18% in that period, making them an attractive buying opportunity. Additionally, heightened interest in the leading chipmaker’s stock was linked to Alphabet’s (GOOGL) and Microsoft’s (MSFT, +0.22%) plans to ramp up capital expenditures on tech infrastructure, including servers and data centres. As a key supplier of GPUs for AI applications, NVidia is well-positioned to benefit from this increased spending. Investors took note and started buying.
By mid-session, all major U.S. indexes had managed to recover, closing the day in positive territory. The NASDAQ Composite gained +0.19%, while the Dow Jones (DJIA-30) led the way with a +0.71% increase. As usual, the broad-market S&P 500 landed somewhere in the middle, ending the day up +0.39%.
Meanwhile, ITS indexes outperformed their U.S. counterparts, posting gains of nearly 1%. The ITS Shariah Index (ITSS) narrowly missed this milestone, rising +0.99%, while the ITS World Index (ITSW) posted a solid +0.93% increase, inching closer to historic highs—just a quarter of a percent shy.
Semiconductor stocks were the key drivers of growth in both indexes. While NVidia took the lead in the ITS Shariah Index, another chipmaker outpaced it in the ITS World Index. That title went to Dutch semiconductor manufacturer NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI, +5.36%), whose shares saw strong demand, adding over 5% to their market value.
Ultimately, despite persistent geopolitical concerns, investors are actively seeking opportunities to buy undervalued stocks, particularly in the technology sector. AI remains a hot topic, and demand for semiconductor stocks continues to push markets higher.