Staff writersUpdated August 28, 2026 — 11:06am,first published August 28, 2026 — 5:16amThe Australian sharemarket has advanced at the open after a solid night on Wall Street, with stocks jumping as Nvidia, Salesforce and others reported fatter profits than expected.The S&P/ASX 200 was up 19.5 points or 0.2 per cent to 9057.7 in early trade. The ASX lost 1 per cent on Thursday. The Australian dollar was stronger at US71.95¢.Positive results from Nvidia and Salesforce helped allay concerns over AI stocks and drove Wall Street higher. BloombergReporting season is drawing to a close and Virgin Australia surged by 9.5 per cent in early trade as it reported robust results, with underlying pre-tax earnings surging by more than 13 per cent to $753 million. Virgin will pay a dividend of 7.6¢ a share.Retail giant Harvey Norman slid 0.2 per cent as it reported that net profit increased 2 per cent to $528.5 million in the financial year.Nvidia’s strong results pushed Wall Street’s Nasdaq higher overnight, and the positive sentiment flowed through to local technology stocks, with Xero jumping 5.9 per cent, WiseTech and Technology One each up 3.5 per cent and NEXTDC 3 per cent higher.Mining stocks are mixed with Fortescue up 0.4 per cent, BHP flat and Rio Tinto shedding 1 per cent in early trade. Gold stocks advanced with the price of the precious metal steady near $US4600 an ounce as investors weighed the outlook for US interest rates ahead of a key speech by Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh.Financial stocks are steady with National Australia Bank up 0.1 per cent, Westpac and Commonwealth Bank down 0.1 per cent and ANZ Bank 0.3 per cent lower.Energy stocks are higher with oil prices advancing overnight before steadying in early Asian trade. Woodside and Santos added 1.1 per cent each while refiner Ampol rose 0.9 per cent.Overnight, the S&P 500 rose 0.7 per cent and pulled closer to its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones added 105 points, or 0.2 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.6 per cent.On Wall Street, Nvidia was the strongest force pulling the market higher, and the chip giant rallied 8.7 per cent after once again delivering stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. More importantly for Wall Street, it also gave forecasts for coming revenue growth that topped analysts’ estimates, suggesting demand remains strong for chips to power artificial-intelligence projects.“AI has reached its inflection point,” Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said. “It’s doing useful work. Its tokens are productive and profitable.”That helped calm some of the worries that have built around AI stocks generally, which have been under pressure recently. After rocketing higher for years because of the frenzy around AI, stocks in the industry are confronting scepticism that they shot too high and that booming demand for AI chips may fade if the AI revolution does not produce as much profit as promised.Another big tech company, Salesforce, jumped 22.6 per cent after it said that AI helped it deliver one of its best quarters in history. It reported stronger profit than analysts expected, and chief executive Marc Benioff said it’s “seeing incredible demand for our AI and data products” and that it’s “turning AI into customer success at unprecedented scale”.Salesforce, which helps companies to manage their customers’ data, also raised its forecast for revenue over the full year and announced an expanded partnership to pair Anthropic’s Claude chatbot with its platform. It’s notable because Salesforce’s stock struggled earlier on worries that competitors powered by AI could ultimately steal away customers from Salesforce and other software companies. Salesforce’s stock had its best day in six years.Elsewhere, though, trends were more mixed across big US companies, and the majority of stocks within the S&P 500 fell.HP sank 2.9 per cent even though it topped analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue in the latest quarter. Analysts pointed to worries about its sales of personal computers, as well as how higher prices for computer memory and other commodities are pressuring its profit margins.Best Buy and some other retailers sank amid continued worries that US shoppers could be stretched because of high inflation and discouragement about the economy. Best Buy fell 4.4 per cent even though it topped analysts’ expectations for both profit and revenue in the latest quarter.One potential winner from high inflation could be dollar stores, which could see higher-income households become new customers as they look for less expensive places to shop.Dollar General rose 2.5 per cent after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. But rival Dollar Tree sank 3.9 per cent despite blowing past profit expectations. More attention may have been on its forecasted range for an important underlying measure of revenue, whose midpoint fell short of analysts’ expectations.In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher following a report suggesting that the US job market remains solid. Fewer US workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, an indication that layoffs could be remaining low.The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.67 per cent from 4.66 per cent late on Wednesday.Yields have been largely climbing through the summer on worries about high inflation, the US government’s gargantuan and growing debt and other factors. They got so high that the US Treasury Department made a surprise announcement last week to intervene in the bond market, though analysts say its effect could be limited.The next big event for the bond market will be a speech coming on Friday from Warsh. He has been adamant about giving financial markets fewer clues about what the Fed will do in future with interest rates to control inflation. But the pressure is on him to give clearer guidance.From our partners