"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%.
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%.
