Midday stocks: Nvidia, AMD, Levi Strauss

Nvidia is trading higher due to upcoming “insane” demand

Nvidia shares rose 3% after CEO Jensen Huang announced strong demand for Blackwell.

“Blackwell is in full production,” Huang said in an Oct. 2 interview with CNBC. “Blackwell is as planned and the demand for Blackwell is insane. Everyone wants to have the most and everyone wants to be first.”

Related: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang just told investors what's next for the AI ​​chipmaker

Blackwell is a platform that Nvidia launched in March that allows companies to run generative AI in real time on models trained to understand and produce human language. Customers include Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

“Every year there is a new generation of Al infrastructure,” Huang said. “That’s why we update our platform every year. If we can increase performance, as we have done at Hopper and Blackwell, we effectively increase revenue or throughput for our customers on these infrastructures by a multiple of up to three times a year.”

AMD Stock Gains After Analyst Update

According to thefly.com, AMD shares rose nearly 2% after a BofA analyst said AMD's AI event on October 10 could be a “catch-up catalyst.”

The analyst notes that last year's AI event on December 6 produced stock returns of 19% and 80% one month and three months later, respectively.

Related: Analysts reset AMD stock outlook after AI acquisition

The analyst argues that roadmap updates in AI and server CPU areas with supportive cloud customer comments “could revitalize AMD stock” but warns of increasing competition in the AI ​​industry.

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BofA maintains its Buy rating and $180 price target on AMD shares.

Levi Strauss falls due to poor prospects

Levi Strauss fell 7.3% after the jeans maker reported a loss in sales and cut its sales forecast for the fiscal year.

In the quarter ended Aug. 25, the company earned 33 cents per share, higher than the 31 cents analysts expected. However, sales of $1.52 billion missed analysts' forecast of $1.55 billion.

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Levi Strauss also lowered its sales forecast and now expects sales growth of 1%, below its previous growth forecast of 1% to 3% and below analysts' expected 2.3% growth, according to LSEG data.

The company is considering selling its Dockers brand, which saw Dockers revenue fall 15% to $73.7 million in the quarter.

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