CHRIS VERSACE: Good morning, Action Alerts Plus members. It should come as no surprise that we begin today's daily rundown with the debt ceiling. Those conversations continue to drag on, and it looks like they will go on well into the weekend despite reports of incremental progress. Now, we've been sharing with you our view that we are likely to get an 11th hour deal. And this means we will have to endure increasingly dramatic headlines in the coming days.
That's likely to stoke investor worries, but we will continue to keep our heads cool and our emotions in check. Rather, we'll be looking for opportunities inside the portfolio just like we did earlier this week. And of course, this all comes as we digest the latest FOMC meeting minutes that we received yesterday. Those minutes showed that meeting participants agreed inflation-- unacceptably high.
Now, from my perspective, all we need to do is to recall the core CPI data that we saw from January, February, March, and April. And with that in hand, that comment should not be surprising at all. To that, we can add this morning's revision to the first quarter GDP figures which showed core PCE price index inched up to 5% higher than the initial reading of 4.9%.
And for context, those figures compare to the 4.4% reading we saw in the December quarter. Clearly not a good look for inflation or the Fed's efforts thus far. Now, we will have another look at inflation with tomorrow's April core PCE price index figure. And what it reveals about inflation could tip the market's thinking toward the Fed having to do a little more. We'll be sure to break it all down for you and what it means once the data is out and in our hands.
Moving over to semiconductors. Last night, we finally heard from NVIDIA. Now, expectations were high going into that report. And boy oh boy, it was a strong beat and raise earnings report led primarily by the company's data center business. But to be fair, all of its businesses were up year over year.
In terms of its outlook, NVIDIA's share that it sees, quote, "$1 trillion of installed global data center infrastructure, transitioning from general purpose to accelerated computing as companies race to apply generative AI into every product, service, and business process." NVIDIA also lifted its guidance well above consensus expectations for the current quarter primarily, yes, because of that data center business.
Obviously, this is going to be good news for NVIDIA but also others that serve that end market, including our shares of Marvell. Remember, data center is Marvell's largest end market. That long-term outlook shared by NVIDIA is also another factor that will drive demand for chips, suggesting the industry will need more chip capacity over time. We see that along with the ramping CHIPS Act spending both in the US and elsewhere as long-term bullish for our position in applied materials.
Those shares are up today following NVIDIA's results. But our preference is to pick up AMAT shares closer to the 120 level, if not slightly lower. In terms of Marvell, we'll have a lot more to say after it reports its earnings after tonight's closing bell. But in that report, we will, of course, be focusing on the data center business, but we will also be looking for a Marvell to discuss its exposure to AI.
And finally, if you missed it, yesterday, we went ahead and added two our position in COTY. In our trade alert note, we explained our thinking as to why the recent pullback was overdone relative to the continued strength in the beauty part of the luxury goods industry. Now, last night, that assertion that we had was backed up by great quarterly results from e.l.f. Beauty. And we'll look for more confirmation when Ulta Beauty reports after tonight's close.
Folks, even with COTY shares up on the e.l.f. news, the $10.00 to $10.50 range is simply a great place for you to pick up shares of COTY. That'll do it for today's rundown. JD Durkin will be back tomorrow with a look at the technical landscape with AAP team member, Bruce Kamich. Have a great day. And I'll be back with you on Tuesday after the Memorial Day weekend.