JPM nets $16.9B in Q2 as NVDA rises 4.1% on China H200 deliveries

The rate backdrop entering Tuesday was measured: the 10-year Treasury yield closed Monday at 4.62%, the VIX held at 17.2, and neither reading gave the session a reason to flinch. The action came from bank earnings and a broad chip-sector recovery.

$JPM: $16.9B net income, dividend raised, expenses matched the revenue growth

$JPM reported second-quarter net income of $16.9 billion on 15% revenue growth. Management raised the dividend. Expenses also climbed 15% — which is the number the street will argue about, because every dollar of top-line expansion cost the same in overhead. The broader bank sector put up parallel numbers: JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo combined for Q2 profits 39% above the same period last year, carried by trading volumes and dealmaking. The results did not land uniformly. Citi fell after its own report while Goldman hit a fresh record high.

Chip stocks recover: $NVDA confirmed China H200 shipments

$NVDA gained 4.1% after the company confirmed it has begun shipping H200 processors to China under a restricted but authorized program — reported volumes are capped below 200 units per buyer. Morgan Stanley reiterated Nvidia as their top chip pick the same day. Softer-than-expected inflation data provided an additional tailwind across growth equities. $INTC led the cohort with a 4.5% gain; investors concluded chip demand held firm regardless of the active US-Iran military confrontation in the background. $AMAT added 3.5% in the same sector move; no company-specific catalyst cleared the desk for Applied Materials.

$QCOM and $ADBE moved against the grain

$QCOM fell 3.2%, bucking the chip recovery. Bank of America flagged near-term pain for smartphone-oriented chip designers, and the stock has shed 19% from its recent peak on concerns about Chinese market exposure and reduced Apple order flow. At current prices, Qualcomm yields 6.4% in free cash flow — a number that reads as either value or warning depending on whether the smartphone cycle turns.

$ADBE dropped 4.3% after IBM warned that enterprise software budgets are being cut to redirect capital toward AI hardware procurement. Adobe announced a freemium shift for its AI products and disclosed an acquisition of Topaz Labs, an AI creative-tools specialist. AI-first annualized recurring revenue is reportedly tracking 3x above the prior year, but the IBM read-through hit the software category broadly and Adobe absorbed the steeper end of it.

What we set aside

BRK-B was examined and produced no filings or substantive news within the publication window.

Filings desk

No insider transactions over $1 million and no material corporate events cleared the gate today.

The desk is watching JPMorgan's expense trajectory and the pace of enterprise AI hardware budget displacement as Wells Fargo and Bank of America follow with their own Q2 results.