Little Reaction to Nvidia Earnings Announcement or the Monthend Data Deluge
February 26, 2026
Nvidia announced solid earnings and revenues after yesterday’s session-ending bell, but its share price did not rise in response. That set the stage for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng to lose 1.4% today, and markets in Indonesia and Singapore also absorbed losses. In contrast, stock markets in Australia and Japan rose by 0.5% today, and those in Italy and Germany are currently also up 0.5%. U.S. stock futures have barely moved.
The Bank of Korea as expected again left its key interest rate unchanged at 2.5%, the level since a 25-basis point reduction last May, which had been the fourth such cut since October. The vote was unanimous, also to no surprise, and a released statement expressed satisfaction with South Korea’s economic trends and prospects but also noted financial stability risks that warrant caution. “With inflation expected to remain stable near the target level, economic growth is projected to continue improving at a stronger than expected pace, and risks to financial stability also remain.” There are challenges “associated with housing prices in Seoul and its surrounding areas, with household debt, and with the impact of exchange rate volatility.”
The sole dissenter at the last Bank of Japan Board meeting, Takata who favored a rate hike, reiterated his view that the goal of restoring sustainable Japanese inflation of 2% has essentially been achieved, and that gradual interest rate increases should now be pursued.
Typical of the end of every month, these last two business days of February are chocked full of scheduled data releases around the world. These, too, have elicited only a muted foreign exchange reaction. Overnight dollar movements include gains of 0.2% versus the Swiss franc and New Zealand dollar and 0.1% relative to the Canadian dollar, Aussie dollar, Mexican peso and sterling. The euro, won, and Turkish lira are unchanged against the U.S. currency, while the yen has firmed 0.2%.
Today is also the anniversary of a significant turning point in the dollar that occurred 41 years ago. The period of steepest dollar appreciation in the half century of market-determined exchange rates occurred in the first term of the Reagan Presidency. The dollar peaked on February 25, 1985 against several key currencies. Compared to the highs on that day, the dollar is currently 34% weaker than its euro-equivalent value of the Deutsche mar and 41% weaker relative to the yen. It has fallen 73% against the Swiss franc but by just 24% vis-a-vis sterling.
Elsewhere today in financial market activity, prices for silver and gold are down 4.3% and 0.8%. West Texas Intermediate oil is 1.6% softer even though the status of U.S.-Iranian talks to avert war is still touch-and-go. Bitcoin’s price is barely changed. Ten-year sovereign debt yields rose two basis points in Japan, fell two bps in Switzerland and the U.K. and by a basis point in the United States. There’s been no change in the 10-year German, French, Italian or Spanish yields.
Canada’s current account was in deficit on a seasonally adjusted basis in every quarter of 2025. While the fourth quarter imbalance was smaller than a year earlier, the full-2025 current account short fall of C$ 30.407 billion roughly twice as wide as the deficit in 2024, which had been equivalent to 1% of GDP.
New U.S. jobless insurance claims last week remained low at 212k.
Economic sentiment in the euro area had touched a 36-month high in January of 99.3 but eased back to a 2-month low this month of 98.3. The service sector, industrial sector, and labor market subindices were at 4-, 2- and 2-month lows. Consumers were a tad less optimistic about inflation.
M3 money growth in the euro area picked up to 3.3% year-on-year last month. Growth in overall bank credit and loans to households printed at 3.0% each, while lending to non-financial firms went up 2.8%.
Consumer confidence improved to a 4-month high in Italy and Sweden and to a 2-month high in Slovakia. Consumer sentiment fell to a 22-month low in Finland and a 4-month low in Portugal.
Business confidence fell to a 4-month low in New Zealand and Sweden but climbed to a 17-month high in Spain’s industrial sector.
Among reported price data,
- Icelandic consumer price inflation in February matched January’s 16-month high of 5.2%.
- Finnish producer price inflation jumped to a 34-month high of 1.9% in January following a -0.8% reading in the prior month.
- South African PPI inflation slowed to a 5-month low of 2.2% in January after three consecutive readings at 2.9%, which had been the highest since July 2024.
- Malaysian PPI inflation has been in sub-zero percent territory since March 2023 including the most deflationary reading in a half year in January (-2.9%).
- A -2.0% rate of Swedish PPI inflation last month was less negative than in December but below zero for the 9th time in 11 months.
- Belgian consumer price inflation of 1.45% in February exceeded January’s 14-month low of 1.1%.
Singaporean real GDP advanced 2.1% on quarter and 6.9% on year in 4Q 2025. Those estimates represent upward revisions from preliminary measures and resulted in 5.0% average growth in 2025, which was close to 5.3% in 2024 and well above 1.5% in 2023. Industrial production in Singapore shot up 5.3% in January and was 16.6% higher than a year earlier.
Copyright 2026, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved.
Tags: Bank of Korea, Canadian current account, Euroland economic sentiment
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