(Fixes share RIC in first paragraph)

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike

Dolan

There's not too much to worry about at the world's most valuable

company - or the artificial intelligence theme - but just

conceding that triple-digit growth can't last forever has been

enough to stall Nvidia's share price and dampen global

tech stocks.

The $3.6 trillion chip giant's revenue forecast on Wednesday

disappointed Wall Street, with its stock down more than 3%

premarket - with peers Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ), Intel ( INTC )

and Qualcomm ( QCOM ) off about 1% in sympathy and

European chipmakers down as well.

Although it beat most metrics and consensus estimates yet

again, Nvidia forecast its slowest revenue growth in seven

quarters and flagged supply chain constraints through next year.

Its executives warned investors the company's margins would sink

several percentage points to the low-70% range until production

kinks are ironed out.

But don't shed too many tears. The AI bellwether's latest

earnings report was by most standards still extraordinary -

sales in its main data center segment more than doubled and the

company's forecast revenue of $37.5 billion for fourth quarter

was above average estimates of $37.09 billion.

And in many respects, the price reaction is modest. After

another 20% share surge over the past two months, markets feel

most of the ongoing boom is already in the price for now.

More worrying on Wednesday was U.S. retailer Target's ( TGT )

big miss on its profit and holiday-quarter sales

forecast - which sent its stock plummeting more than 20% and

stood in contrast to the previous day's beat from the world's

no. 1 retailer Walmart ( WMT ).

The politics of President-elect Donald Trump's incoming

administration still dominated thinking in the background - with

no sign yet of his pick for Treasury Secretary - and

geopolitical worries rumbled abroad.

One of the few post-election trades to keep on moving was

Bitcoin - and the dominant crypto asset zoomed close to a

record $98,000 overnight, up more than 40% over the past month.

Overall, the broader market was more subdued, with stock

futures marginally in the red on Thursday and most European and

Asian indexes lower too.

U.S. Treasury yields slipped back despite a

poorly received 20-year bond auction on Wednesday - but the

dollar remained firm.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Thursday the

central bank would "seriously" take into account foreign

exchange rate moves in compiling its economic and price

forecasts and noted there would be more information to digest

before next month's policy meeting.

Another dominant market story overseas was in India as firms

of the Adani Group conglomerate lost as much as $34 billion in

market value after U.S. prosecutors charged its billionaire

chairman in an alleged bribery and fraud scheme.

Gautam Adani's flagship Adani Enterprises tumbled

as much as 23% to its lowest since November 2023 for its worst

one-day drop since February last year.

Key developments that should provide more direction to U.S.

markets later on Thursday:

* Philadelphia Federal Reserve's November business survey,

Kansas City Fed's November business surveys; US weekly jobless

claims, US October existing home sales; Euro zone November

consumer confidence; Canada October producer prices

* US corporate earnings: Intuit, NetApp, Deere, Ross Stores,

Copart, PDD

* Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee, Cleveland

Fed President Beth Hammack and Fed Vice Chair for Supervision

Michael Barr all speak. European Central Bank chief economist

Philip Lane speaks, Bank of Spain governor Jose Luis Escriva and

Bank of Cyprus governor Christodoulos Patsalides all speak; Bank

of England policymaker Catherine Mann speaks

* US Treasury sells $17 billion of 10-year inflation-protected

securities