US equity markets ticked higher as investors digested results from retailers and eyed the released of semi-conductor giant Nvidia Corp’s (up +0.64%) first quarter result after the closing bell tonight AEST - Dow edged +66-points or +0.17% higher. International Business Machines (IBM) Corp rose +2.09%after it said it was expanding several artificial intelligence (AI) partnerships with companies including Meta Platforms Inc (down -0.90%) and Salesforce Inc (-1.15%). Microsoft Corp added +0.87% to US$429.04 to close just cents shy of a record high after it unveiled new tools to develop AI software during the first day of its Microsoft Build developer conference.
