Top 10 Stocks to Watch -- The AI Earnings Avalanche

NVIDIA just printed $96 billion in revenue with a $108 billion Q3 guide, and it took the whole sector with it. Here are ten names with live catalysts for Thursday's session, ranked by conviction.

Wall Street walked into Thursday morning wearing NVIDIA's earnings like a crown. The company reported $96.2 billion in second-quarter revenue Wednesday night -- $3.8 billion above consensus -- with adjusted EPS of $2.22 against a $2.09 estimate, and then guided Q3 to $105.8-$110.1 billion. That guidance landed roughly $5 billion above where analysts had penciled it. The data center segment alone delivered $89 billion, up 18% quarter over quarter, accounting for 92.7% of total revenue. NVIDIA also projected approximately 70% revenue growth for fiscal 2028. That is not a beat. That is a reset.

The cascade was immediate. Software companies that touched AI saw their after-hours results read as confirmation that enterprise adoption is accelerating, not plateauing. Cybersecurity names -- long the quiet beneficiaries of AI's expanding attack surface -- put up strong numbers too. By 7 a.m. EDT Thursday, the pre-market board looked less like a routine session and more like an awards show.

Complicating the euphoria: July's Core PCE came in at 0.2% month over month, in line with expectations, but the annual reading landed at 3.3% -- slightly above what the market was hoping for. Futures slipped initially on the data. Fed rate-hike odds for September sit around 38%, with year-end odds at 73%. The inflation print gives the market a reason to trim some of the overnight enthusiasm; it also gives the Fed a reason to stay cautious. Thursday opens with two competing narratives: AI earnings vindication versus sticky inflation overhead.

Here are the ten names worth watching.

1. NVIDIA ($NVDA)
Prior close: $209.66 | Pre-market: $223.80 (+6.75%) as of approximately 7:00 a.m. EDT

The thesis could not have been stated more clearly. NVIDIA printed $96.2 billion in Q2 revenue against a $92.4 billion consensus, with data center revenue of $89 billion -- up 18% quarter over quarter. Adjusted EPS of $2.22 beat the $2.09 estimate. Management guided Q3 to $105.8-$110.1 billion, several billion above the street, and projected approximately 70% revenue growth for fiscal 2028. Gross margin held at 75%.

The stock initially dipped after hours -- a pattern that has appeared after NVIDIA's last few reports as some investors sell the news -- but recovered strongly overnight. Pre-market at $223.80 puts it against the mid-July highs.

Watch for: How NVDA holds the $220 level through the first hour. A hold above $220 with solid volume suggests institutional accumulation rather than retail chasing. A fade below $215 on high volume would signal the classic sell-the-print rotation is winning the session.

2. Okta ($OKTA)
Prior close: $134.42 | Pre-market: $160.00 (+19.03%) as of approximately 7:02 a.m. EDT

The identity security company put up the most dramatic upside surprise in Wednesday's batch. Q2 revenue came in at $805 million against a $793 million estimate, with adjusted EPS of $1.05 beating the $0.96 consensus. The metric that moved the needle most: subscription backlog grew 17% year over year to $4.85 billion -- a forward-revenue signal that analysts track more closely than the current-quarter number.

OKTA had been trading near 18-month lows before this print. Thursday's open will be its strongest session in years.

Watch for: Whether OKTA can hold above $155 through the open. The stock has a history of fading hard after good prints, so the key question is whether the backlog number is enough to change the fundamental narrative versus just generating a one-day squeeze.

3. CrowdStrike ($CRWD)
Prior close: $189.18 | Pre-market: $206.79 (+9.31%) as of approximately 7:03 a.m. EDT

CrowdStrike reported Q2 revenue of $1.47 billion against a $1.43 billion estimate and posted a record net new annual recurring revenue figure of $333 million. The message from the quarter: AI-era cybersecurity demand has not slowed. If anything, expanding attack surfaces driven by AI deployments are broadening CrowdStrike's addressable market in real time.

Up 9.31% pre-market to $206.79, the stock is approaching the $210 level it last tested before the summer reset.

Watch for: A clean break and hold above $210 would be technically constructive. If the broader market pulls back on the PCE data, CRWD's beta could amplify the fade -- the stock tends to trade with macro sentiment on down days more than its individual fundamentals suggest it should.

The rest of this briefing is for paid members: entries #4 through #10 -- including tonight's custom-silicon pre-catalyst play, the AI cloud name carrying a Goldman price target of $328, the defensive retailer that just beat earnings estimates by nearly 30 cents, and the specific watch levels and trigger scenarios for all seven remaining names.

AlphaBriefing Paid gets you every investment thesis, scenario framework, and catalyst brief we publish -- the analysis private intel clients pay four figures for, at a fraction of that.

Unlock the full briefing →