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Nvidia's earnings are “becoming as important as any major economic data for the U.S. market,” the FT wrote. For some, it will be just another excuse to get drunk on Wednesday afternoon.
On a sweltering New York summer day, about 40 sweaty Nvidia aficionados gathered at the Storehouse Sports Bar on Sixth Avenue. Together, they counted down the days until the chipmaker's second-quarter earnings report, their eyes glued to seven big screens broadcasting CNBC's Fast Money rather than the second round of the U.S. Open.
The get-together was organized by equity analyst Lauren Balik, who had invited “long, short and otherwise” to join him for a beer in celebration of Wall Street's hottest stocks earlier that day, and, sandwiched between an off-duty exotic derivatives trader and a young tech industry insider who vowed to sell his Nvidia holdings “right away” if the stock hit $140, FTAV was more than happy to oblige.
It's on. $NVDA The NYC Watch Party will take place at the Storehouse on August 28th from 3:30pm.
They will play earnings conference calls over loudspeakers and allow CNBC and other financial news channels to continue airing on some televisions.
I'm excited. Either way it's going to be interesting.
Send a message to lauren… https://t.co/kUIw5qKjFg pic.twitter.com/FnuJPxt8As
— Lauren Balik (@laurenbalik) August 27, 2024
Balik told FTAV that she is “very pessimistic most of the time.” The three shiny bubble-blowing pistols she handed out to the mostly male audience testified to this playful skepticism. “I love a good bubble more than anything,” she continues. “Predicting when they're going to pop is a really fun game.”
“For some reason, I thought I'd try and host this event,” she shouted over the commotion.
We're in a sports bar. Sports are all about gambling, and Wall Street has always been about gambling. So we thought, why not combine the two? If you're spending money watching football or baseball, you're spending money on the stock market. People get attached to these things, for better or worse. That's the way our times work.
“I have a bubble embedded in me,” Balik added. “I remember growing up in Virginia and having a lot of friends whose parents worked for big internet companies (before the dot-com bubble burst). Mark Lynch, the CFO of MicroStrategy, taught me business administration in high school. I was his honor student! It's a very funny story.”
“There's a countdown to this outcome on CNBC and guys like me watching it in a bar… it's over, it's over,” says an exotic derivatives trader gloomily.
Lauren Balik blowing bubbles © FTAV
The countdown itself begins before we know what it is, exactly. The crowd, drunk on expensive craft beer, yells 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and then yells “Yay!” in unison as stocks start to rise. A man in a baseball cap throws his arms into the air in celebration; another quickly downs a pint of Bud Light. Across the bar, disgruntled sports fans look on in bewilderment.
But the good times won't last. No one seems to care now, but revenue for the three months ending in July was $30 billion, up 122% from a year ago, but just slightly above analysts' expectations of $28.7 billion. Moreover, Nvidia expects revenue of $32.5 billion for the current quarter, plus or minus 2%, just slightly above expectations. In the world of Nvidia earnings, this will be viewed as a blip, and the stock will fall to a chorus of boos.
With a big smile on his face, Balik told me that the bar owner had had a baby earlier that day. “Nvidia might be a pretty cool middle name. See you next quarter.”
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— NVIDIA shares fall despite revenue more than doubling (MainFT)
