Morning Bid: Nvidia kills the buzz as profit merely awesome, not legendary

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Gregor Stuart Hunter

Tech stocks are pulling back after Nvidia released earnings that any other CEO would probably kill for.

The chip designer and AI bellwether reported a beat to analysts' estimates and forecast Q3 revenue that was higher than Wall Street estimates. But a miss on data centre revenue and questions over China forecasts sent its shares sliding more than 3% in after-hours trading.

"Nvidia's results had to be blemish free and, despite being objectively good, they weren't perfect," said Kyle Rodda, senior market analyst at Capital.com. "With the stock trading at such a high valuation, any bad news was going to be punished."

Following two days of gain that have pushed U.S. markets to a record high, S&P 500 e-mini futures fell 0.1% and Nasdaq futures tumbled 0.2% after Nvidia's results. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan swung between gain and loss, and was last down 0.3%.

SPILLOVER

The chill was felt across the Asian tech sector, as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co tumbled 1.7% and Samsung Electronics slipped 0.7%, hinting at what may be in store for Dutch chipmaker ASML in the European session.

Nvidia's Chinese competitors surged, with SMIC gaining 8.3% and Cambricon Technologies - whose shares have almost tripled since mid-July - adding another 7.1% after the company on Wednesday said it had swung into profit. The two chipmakers pushed the STAR 50 Index of Chinese growth stocks to a gain of as much as 5%.

REINING IN EXPECTATIONS

French bonds steadied, with the yield on 30-year bonds pulling back from the highest level since November 2011 on Wednesday as traders dialled back expectations of the hit to government borrowing costs from the country's political crisis.

In trade news, Japanese stocks fluctuated between gain and loss, with the Nikkei 225 last up 0.6%, after Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday that Japan's top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa cancelled a planned visit to the United States, where he was set to iron out details of a trade deal agreed last month.

Key developments that could influence markets on Thursday:

* Earnings: Pernod Ricard, CD Projekt, Brunello Cucinelli * Eurozone data: Money-M3 Annual Growth for July * Business Climate, Economic Sentiment, IndustrialSentiment, Services Sentiment and Consumer Confidence for August

(Reporting by Gregor Stuart Hunter; Editing by Christopher Cushing)