Volkswagen reported a 9.5% drop in Q2 operating profit and cut its annual revenue forecast by up to 3% due to a significant sales slump in China. The German carmaker is implementing a cost-cutting program, including plans to axe up to 100,000 jobs globally, facing union opposition.
Nike exceeded Wall Street's earnings and revenue expectations for its fiscal fourth quarter, reporting 20 cents adjusted EPS and $10.97 billion in revenue. Despite a 12% drop in China sales, a significant tariff refund boosted gross margin and EPS.
Nvidia's CFO expressed uncertainty about generating revenue from China despite US license approvals for H200 shipments, as the company excludes China data center compute revenue from its outlook.
Qualcomm shares recovered from a 7% drop after CEO Cristiano Amon announced the company will begin shipping data center chips to a large hyperscaler within the calendar year. The chipmaker reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $2.65, beating estimates, but issued a Q3 revenue forecast of $9.2B-$10B, below the $10.19B expected. Despite falling behind Nvidia in the AI chip race, Qualcomm unveiled data center chips last year and announced a partnership with OpenAI to develop AI chips for smartphones.
Europe's largest banks and TotalEnergies reported upbeat first-quarter results on Wednesday, with Deutsche Bank posting a record €2.2bn profit, Santander posting €5.5bn attributable profit, and UBS posting an 80% profit jump. TotalEnergies saw net income rise 51% to $5.8bn. Executives flagged rising uncertainty from the Middle East conflict and its ripple effects on energy prices, consumer confidence and European interest rates, with the ECB warning of downward growth revisions.
