What happened
Less than a month before Nvidia's (NVDA 2.12%) second-quarter earnings are due out, shares of the semiconductor giant closed 2.2% higher on Monday. Investors seemed to be continuing to react positively to the news that, as Business Insider reported on Thursday, "Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, exercised millions of dollars in NVIDIA call options ... according to a new congressional financial disclosure."
So what
Over the weekend, news website The Daily Caller noted that Pelosi's purchase, which was noted in the filing as being between $1 million and $5 million, came days ahead of a possible Senate vote that might allocate billions in government subsidies to semiconductor production in the United States.
In that article, dated July 15, it says that Pelosi had possessed 200 call options for the purchase of the Nvidia stock that were due to expire on June 17. Instead of letting that happen, he paid the cash necessary to exercise the options.
Adding further fuel to the fire -- and this may be why the shares continued to rise today -- this news was further amplified when noted investor Louis Navellier picked up the story on his morning podcast. As Navellier pointed out, the House has already approved the subsidies, so if the Senate agrees this week -- and the President signs the bill -- then that means the money spigot will be well and truly turned on.
Now what
Nvidia is one of several semiconductor stocks that would be expected to benefit from the government boosting the industry. And the vote on that could happen as early as tomorrow. Investors seem optimistic about the fact that a high-profile politician (or in this case, her husband) has enough faith to invest millions in Nvidia ahead of the vote, and ahead of Nvidia's Aug. 16 earnings report as well.
Time will tell whether the optimism is well-placed. Analysts are forecasting that Nvidia will report a profit of $1.01 per share on $8.1 billion in sales for the quarter, up 7% and 24% year over year, respectively.
