4:12pm: Another record-breaking session
The three major US stock indexes finished modestly higher as investors largely held off making any significant bets as they await chipmaker Nvidia’s highly anticipated earnings report due on Wednesday.
The S&P 500 notched a new closing high at 5,321 points, finishing the day up 0.3%.
The tech-laden Nasdaq also closed a new record high of 16,832 points, up 0.2%. The Dow Jones added 0.2% at 39,872 points.
Meanwhile, gold and silver retreated slightly from their Monday highs.
"The price of gold slipped back from its Monday record high around the $2,450 per troy ounce mark while silver prices came off their 11 ¼-year highs with the copper squeeze also taking a breather,” IG senior market analyst Axel Rudolph commented.
2.09pm: Nasdaq edges back up
The Nasdaq regained ground into Tuesday lunchtime, climbing 7 points to 16,802.
Gains also came for the Dow Jones and S&P 500, though these were limited to 22 and 5 points respectively following Fed governor Christopher Waller’s warnings that more data was needed before rate cuts could be considered.
As albeit muted trading continued into the afternoon, attention turned to NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD)’s first-quarter results on Wednesday.
Coming exactly a year after the AI chip firm whipped up a storm with May 2023’s update, Scope Markets’ Joshua Mahony commented: “Today provides markets with their final chance to position themselves ahead of tomorrow’s pre-open release [...] from Nvidia.
“[These provide] perhaps the final major hurdle to overcome for the first quarter earnings season.”
Investors will want to see continued “strong growth” he added, with markets anticipating a three-fold increase in revenue to US$24.65 billion.
NVIDIA was up just 0.1% at US$948.89 on Tuesday ahead of the update.
Elsewhere, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) appeared to enjoy a strong day, climbing 5% as a spat around Elon Musk’s US$56 billion pay packet continues and after Reuters reported the firm had taken to wooing leasing companies with discounts in a bid to stimulate demand.
International Business Machines marked the Dow Jones’ biggest gainer on news it was to launch more open-source AI models and had penned a deal with Saudi Arabia.
Keysight Technologies Inc (NYSE:KEYS) and Nordson Group remained well down in the meantime, after both disappointed with guidance in respective results.
12.06pm: Wall Street remains mixed
Wall Street remained subdued into Tuesday afternoon following hawkish commentary from Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller.
The Nasdaq sat three points off the mark at 16,791, while the Dow Jones and S&P 500 notched up gains of just 44 and 2 points respectively.
Waller had dubbed latest inflation data “reassuring” earlier on in the day, but signalled months of further positive developments would be needed before rate cuts.
“The Fed could be behind the curve,” City Index analyst Fawad Razaqzada noted, however.
“With the economy evidently weakening in the US, it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify maintaining a bullish view.”
“Inflation may ease more rapidly moving forward, reducing the need to keep monetary policy tight for an extended period of time.”
Keysight Technologies Inc (NYSE:KEYS) emerged as one of the day’s big movers, having fallen 10.1% after guidance in second-quarter results appeared to disappoint investors.
An overnight downgrade to full-year revenue guidance also hit Nordson Corp (NASDAQ:NDSN), as the equipment manufacturer slipped 8.9% in the meantime.
10.08am: Mixed moves after the opening bell
It's a mixed open for US stocks, with the Dow Jones up, the Nasdaq down and the S&P 500 somewhere in the middle.
The Dow's risen 0.14%, the S&P is down 0.01% and the Nasdaq Composite has fallen 0.21%.
Lifting the Dow are shares in IMB, up 2.5%, JPMorgan Chase bouncing back from yesterday's drop, and Goldman Sachs.
Weighing on the Nasdaq is a 1.3% fall for NVIDIA, a 2.4% decline for ASML and 1.2% decline for Broadcom, while Amazon is down 0.95%.
The Financial Times is reporting that Amazon's AWS cloud services arm has paused orders from Nvidia in order to wait for a more powerful chip.
Investors are fretting about a dip in demand too, the newspaper says.
9.25am: Futures swing lower
US stock futures have swung into the red just ahead of the open, led by the tech-powered Nasdaq.
While Dow Jones futures are pointing to a flat start, those for the S&P 500 indicate a fall of 0.1% and for the Nasdaq 100 a 0.3% decline.
Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller said the latest inflation data is "reassuring" but that further months of positive price developments would be needed before rate cuts.
8am: Futures point to flat start
Wall Street futures are pointing to a flat start, continuing the generally restrained start to the week.
After the Dow Jones retreated from Friday's record high yesterday it is seen starting just above flat, same with the S&P 500, with futures up 0.02% and 0.03% respectively.
After the Nasdaq set its own all-time high yesterday, today futures are pointing to the tech-heavy index opening just below flat.
Yesterday, the Dow was weighed down by JP Morgan which fell 4.5% after CEO Jamie Dimon suggested that he may relinquish his role earlier than expected, and that the banking giant wouldn’t be buying back much stock at current levels.
Overnight, cybersecurity outfit Palo Alto Networks reported numbers in line with expectations, but disappointed in its outlook for the second quarter. The stock is currently down around 6.4% in pre-market trading.
"Otherwise, there was little to influence market direction following all the excitement from last week’s ever-so-slightly positive, although just-as-expected CPI inflation update," says market analyst David Morrison at Trade Nation.
He says there’s "nothing significant due out" in terms of macro data, but there are some interesting companies reporting today including Macy’s, Lowe’s, Urban Outfitters, Autozone and Toll Brothers.
"These could help provide insight into the health of the US consumer, and the willingness, or otherwise, to splash the cash. There are a stack of Federal Reserve members speaking today, but other than this and the earnings, there’s little to rock the boat ahead of NVIDIA and the FOMC minutes tomorrow."