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Wall Street inched higher in early trading Wednesday as markets turned their attention away from President Donald Trump\u2019s State of the Union<\/a> speech and toward the latest earnings report from AI chipmaker Nvidia.<\/p>\n Futures for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each rose 0.3% before the opening bell, while Nasdaq futures climbed 0.5%.<\/p>\n In his speech Tuesday night, Trump focused on jobs, manufacturing and an economy he says is stronger than many Americans believe<\/a>. He didn\u2019t dwell on efforts to lower the cost of living \u2014 despite polling showing that his handling of the economy and kitchen-table issues has increasingly become a liability. <\/p>\n Investors are closely watching for an earnings report due later in the day from chipmaking giant Nvidia<\/a>. The quarterly report is likely to sway a jittery stock market as investors weigh whether the massive bets riding on technology\u2019s latest craze will pay off.<\/p>\n As has been the case since Nvidia\u2019s chipsets emerged as AI\u2019s best building blocks, the expectations are sky-high for the results covering the company\u2019s fiscal quarter, covering November through January. <\/p>\n In early equities trading Wednesday, First Solar shares slumped 16.5% after it fell short of fourth-quarter profit expectations and issued tepid sales guidance for 2026. <\/p>\n Cava jumped 11% in premarket trading after the fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant chain beat Wall Street’s sales and profit targets and gave a strong forecast for the current year. Higher prices and a surprising increase in same-store sales boosted the company’s latest results.<\/p>\n In Europe at midday, France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX each added 0.4% while Britain’s FTSE 100 jumped 0.9%.<\/p>\n Japan’s benchmark briefly hit a record high as investors were cheered by an overnight Wall Street rally driven by optimism about the artificial-intelligence boom. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 surged 2.2% to finish at 58,583.12. <\/p>\n Shares also rose in China. Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng gained 0.7% to 26,765.72, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.7% to 4,147.23. South Korea’s Kospi surged 1.9% to 6,083.86, as the benchmark continued to benefit from the global demand for computer chips.<\/p>\n In Taiwan, the Taiex jumped 2.1% as shares in TSMC, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of computer chips, surged 2.5%. Australia\u2019s S&P\/ASX 200 jumped 1.2% to 9,128.30. <\/p>\n In energy trading early Wednesday, benchmark U.S. crude oil added 58 cents to $66.21 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 71 cents to $71.29 a barrel. <\/p>\n The U.S. dollar recovered to 156.76 Japanese yen from 155.91 yen. The euro cost $1.1786, up from $1.1774. <\/p>\n Gold ticked up less than 1% while silver rose 3.1% to more than $90 per ounce.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https:\/\/www.threads.com\/@yurikageyama<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n