What happened

For the second trading day in a row, Nvidia (NVDA -1.41%) stock is swinging higher on Monday, up 2.2% as of 11 a.m. ET.

There's no obvious Nvidia-specific news behind today's move -- but there is some generally bullish news for semiconductor stocks as a whole that may be moving the market higher.

A semiconductor chip.

Image source: Getty Images.

So what

Specifically, over the weekend Investor's Business Daily noted how a whole series of semiconductor stocks delivered beat-and-raise reports last week, which seems a bullish signal for the sector as a whole.

As IBD details, on Friday alone, chip companies Power Integrations, Synaptics, Microchip Technology, and Skyworks Solutions all reported earnings. Power Integrations beat analyst earnings estimates by 11%, Synaptics by 5%, Microchip by 2.5%, and Skyworks by 1% -- but while the size of the beats varied, all four companies undeniably exceeded expectations. Moreover, all four companies also predicted similar earnings beats in the coming quarter, with Synaptics in particular forecasting sales growth of 43% year over year.  

Now what

Does this bullish performance, and do these bullish prognoses, for other chip stocks mean Nvidia stock will do similarly well? Of course not -- not necessarily, at least. But the uniformly better-than-expected results do appear to bode well for the health of the semiconductor industry.

And with analysts forecasting Nvidia to grow its sales 48% in the coming quarter, and its profits by 58%, it's easy to see why investors would be optimistic about the stock today.