Forget Nvidia, These Earnings Are a Bigger Deal for the AI Trade

Marvell Chairman and CEO Matt Murphy delivers a keynote speech during COMPUTEX in Taipei, Taiwan. (Cheng Chia Huang/Getty Images)

Nvidia earnings have long been a key catalyst for the artificial-intelligence boom, but this time another chip company’s results may be more critical to revive the faltering trade.

And Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang isn’t blind to the importance of this latest AI darling.

Marvell , set to report results Thursday, will become the next trillion-dollar chip company, Huang claimed earlier this year. With a market capitalization of $200 billion, it needs something special.

The results will follow Nvidia’s after the bell Wednesday. They will still matter—a lot—but Marvell is now at the heart of the AI boom, a major supplier of optical networking products critical for connecting servers in data centers. It also designs custom chips, an area of the business it strengthened last week through a $120 billion deal with Google.

It’s the company’s networking segment, and data-center revenue growth in particular, that will drive growth and dictate the direction of travel for AI stocks. Highflying and often volatile peers Coherent and Lumentum often move in lockstep with Marvell.

Nvidia will still play a big role in any AI revival, and investors will gladly accept a boost from either company’s earnings right now, given the chip sector and tech’s broader recent slide.

The AI chip maker’s shares have fallen for seven consecutive days, down 6.7% over that period. That’s Nvidia’s longest losing streak since September 2022—before the advent of ChatGPT, if anyone can remember what the world was like back then.

It’s an oddity for the world’s most valuable company, which has enjoyed an average gain of 2.9% in the seven days ahead of earnings in the past four years, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The broader sector has also faltered, the PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX) is down more than 8% over the past seven days. Marvell has bucked the trend, rising 3% over the period.

Nvidia has shouldered the AI burden for a long time, and it’s now Marvell’s moment to drag the rest of the market out of its recent slump.

—Callum Keown

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U.S. Aims to Defeat Iran With More Sanctions

The U.S. is piling new economic sanctions on Iran and its trading partners to end the Iran war and permanently shut down its nuclear program. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled what he called “Operation Economic Outcast” at a news conference on Monday.

• The campaign imposes sanctions on five sectors that Bessent said were Iran’s most vital lifelines: digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping. The government is also sanctioning more than 60 entities, individuals, and vessels that allow Iran to procure nuclear and missile technology, conduct cyber operations, and generate oil revenue.
• Treasury, the State Department, and the military are giving countries a “defined timeline” for shutting down their activities with Iran. Bessent declined to give details about the timeline.
• The new sanctions will be layered on top of decades-old ones that Iran has managed to skirt by trading with China, India, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. China is a touchy subject for the U.S. because of the important—but fragile—ties between the countries. Beijing firmly opposed what it described as illegal unilateral sanctions, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Tuesday, China’s CGTN reported.
• Iran’s response to the crackdown was defiant. Hard-liners promised not to let the war “end on the terms of the aggressor.” Other leaders threatened economic sanctions against any countries that help the U.S.

What’s Next: The midterm elections in November could help Iran hold out against the sanctions. Americans don’t like the war, polls show, which increases pressure on the Trump administration to end it before any votes are cast.

—Sabrina Escobar

2 Ways Auto Makers Lose From New Tariffs

New U.S. tariffs on Canada might not be as good for the auto industry as President Donald Trump thinks. Tariffs, in theory, are designed to revive American manufacturing. But many finished cars and car parts cross the Mexican and Canadian borders as part of the production.

• A fresh 50% tariff on some $30 billion in Canadian goods—from dairy to wood—went into effect over the weekend. And the president threatened to impose a 50% tariff on all cars, trucks, and car parts starting on Jan. 1.
• Shares of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler parent Stellantis all closed down on Monday. The companies declined to comment on the potential tariff.
• Because so many vehicles and car parts cross so many borders, tariffs essentially represent increased costs and extra work to rearrange U.S. auto supply chains. Tariffs, for example, reduced GM’s 2025 operating profit of $12.7 billion by roughly $2 billion, according to the company.
• The bigger impact for GM, and others, would be south of the border. Last year, the U.S. imported roughly 1.3 million cars from Mexico. Canada’s total was to 700,000 vehicle. Toyota Motor and Honda Motor account for more than 75% of Canadian auto production.

What’s Next: Though GM and Ford are traditional auto makers, both companies are trying to grow their nonautomotive businesses such as backup battery power for AI data centers.

—Al Root

ETF Closures Have Nearly Doubled This Year

Fund providers have shut down 217 exchange-traded funds so far this year, nearly double the number at this point last year. But that’s not slowing down the pace of new ETF offerings.

• The ETFs closed so far this year compare with 119 through mid-August last year, according to data from ETF.com. There were 138 closures during the same period of 2024, 159 in 2023, and just 58 in 2022.
• The closures have hit funds from some of the industry’s biggest players, including BlackRock ’s iShares and Invesco, as well as crypto-focused firm Bitwise and leveraged ETF providers Leverage Shares, GraniteShares, and Direxion.
• Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise, told Barron’s that “closing ETFs is a natural part of a healthy ETF product management cycle” and that the company expects “to launch additional ETFs in the future.”
• The closures are in part a consequence of the explosive growth of the ETF industry, with asset managers launching funds that sometimes fail gain traction. More than 700 new U.S. ETFs launched in the first half of the year, according to CFRA Research.

What’s Next: So what should you do if an ETF you own is shutting down? You typically have two options: sell as soon as you find out the fund is being closed and move on to something else, or wait to receive a cash payout after the ETF is liquidated.

—Paul R. La Monica

NYSE and Nasdaq Want 23-Hour Trading. What It Means for Investors.

Nasdaq reaffirmed its plans to launch a new overnight trading session from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. Eastern time starting Sunday, Dec. 6, moving it to a 23-hour-a-day, five-day-a-week trading schedule. It could be a boon for foreign investors, but the jury is still out on how U.S. retail investors will fare.

• The New York Stock Exchange plans to begin 23-hour trading on the same date. The exchanges’ new trading sessions remain subject to securities information processor, or SIP, “readiness” as well as applicable Securities and Exchange Commission rule changes.
• The shift could be good for business for Nasdaq and NYSE, with both exchanges telling Barron’s the new overnight session is geared largely toward the international investing crowd, particularly in Asia.
• For U.S. investors, it could be a gamble, with expectations of low liquidity in the new trading session and the possibility of volatile price action.
• There will also be a one-hour pause from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. each day, which the exchanges say is also a safety guardrail as well as an opportunity to make sure everything is functioning properly.

What’s Next: The shift is broadly an audition for what could come next: 24-hour, continuous around the clock trading. The SEC has already scheduled a “roundtable” on Sept. 17 to discuss shifts to 24-hour trading, and Chairman Paul Atkins said in a July 23 statement that the U.S. is “moving towards a new day—and night” when it comes to equity market trading.

—Kit Norton

— Newsletter edited by Mel Gray, Stacy Ozol, Patrick O’Donnell, Rupert Steiner

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