4:20pm: Tech-fueled rally
Wall Street ended sharply higher Tuesday, as investors cheered growing signs that the Federal Reserve could ease interest rates next month.
The Dow Jones jumped 664 points, or 1.4%, to 47,112, while the S&P 500 added 61 points, or 0.9%, to 6,766. The Nasdaq climbed 154 points, or 0.7%, to 23,026, and the Russell 2000 surged 52 points, or 2.1%, to 2,466.
Tech heavyweights were the clear stars of the session. Alphabet continued its record-setting run, and Apple also closed at a fresh high, helping drive the Nasdaq’s rebound. “Tech megacaps snapped back from a bruising stretch, giving markets a lift after a rocky start to the month,” analysts said.
Investor focus remains squarely on the Fed. Futures now signal more than an 80% chance of a quarter-point rate cut in December, fueling optimism that borrowing costs may ease in the months ahead.
The broad rally marks a continuation of Monday’s surge, as Wall Street tries to claw back some of its recent losses, led by gains in technology and growth stocks.
3:40pm: Proactive news headlines
- Highland Critical Minerals Corp (CSE:HLND) shareholders unanimously approved Highland’s plan to spin out its Highland Red Lake Gold unit, moving the deal closer to completion before year-end.
- Caledonia Mining Corporation PLC (AIM:CMCL, NYSE-A:CMCL, VFEX:CMCL)’s decision to advance the Bilboes sulphide project follows a feasibility study showing a post-tax NPV of $582 million and a 32.5% IRR.
- Tiziana Life Sciences Ltd (NASDAQ:TLSA)’s Phase 2 trial of intranasal foralumab for ALS has been accepted into the ALS MyMatch Program at Mass General Brigham, enrolling participants at multiple US sites.
- Pinnacle Silver & Gold Corp (TSX-V:PINN, OTCQB:PSGCF) plans to raise up to C$2.52 million via a private placement to fund exploration and development at its El Potrero gold-silver project in Mexico.
2:35pm: Market movers
- Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ:AMAT, XETRA:AP2) shares rose 3.8% after UBS upgraded the stock to Buy and lifted its price target, citing a stronger-than-expected memory recovery.
- Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, XETRA:NVD) shares fell 4.5% as investors grew concerned about increasing AI chip competition and reports that Meta may shift some chip demand to Google.
- Analog Devices Inc (NASDAQ:ADI) shares gained over 4% after the company beat quarterly revenue and profit expectations with broad-based growth across all segments.
- AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE:AMC) shares climbed nearly 5% after the company reported a blockbuster opening weekend for Wicked: For Good, generating $226 million globally.
- Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, XETRA:FB2A, SIX:FB) is reportedly in talks to spend billions on Google’s custom AI chips starting in 2027, potentially reducing its reliance on Nvidia.
- Kohl's Corporation (NYSE:KSS) shares surged more than 32% after the retailer beat third-quarter earnings expectations and raised its full-year guidance.
- Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) shares jumped 28% after the retailer posted strong Q3 results that topped earnings and revenue forecasts.
- Dick's Sporting Goods (NYSE:DKS) shares fell over 3% after posting a Q3 earnings miss despite raising its full-year outlook.
- Tiziana Life Sciences Ltd (NASDAQ:TLSA) announced its Phase 2 ALS trial of intranasal foralumab was accepted into the ALS MyMatch Program at Mass General Brigham.
- Zoom Video Communications Inc (NASDAQ:ZM) raised its full-year guidance after beating revenue and profit expectations, supported by strong enterprise demand and growing use of its AI tools.
- Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) shares rose after the company reported fiscal Q2 revenue that slightly exceeded expectations, driven by strength in its cloud and AI businesses.
1:30pm: Nasdaq stages comeback
The Dow was leading Wall Street into positive territory in early Tuesday afternoon trading.
Just after 1pm ET, the Dow was up 1.2%, the S&P ahead 0.8% and the Nasdaq joined them in the green at 0.5% above the flatline.
12:50pm: Consumer confidence lowest since 2021
Consumer confidence dropped sharply in November, with the Conference Board’s index falling 6.8 points to 88.7, missing expectations and marking its lowest reading since April.
The decline reflects weakening views on current business and labor conditions, which slid to 126.9, the lowest since 2021.
Economists cited lingering inflation worries, job insecurity, and the recent federal government shutdown, which furloughed over a million workers, as key factors. October layoff announcements also surged to 153,074.
“Despite the lapse in official job data, the weakening complementary metrics such as this one will put pressure on the Fed to cut rates in December and continue cutting in 2026,” said Jeffrey Roach, Chief Economist at LPL Financial.
Roach added that easing monetary policy in a nonrecessionary environment could support capital spending throughout the new year.
11:55am: Meta's gain is Nvidia's loss
Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, XETRA:FB2A, SIX:FB) is in talks with Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Google to spend billions of dollars on Google’s custom AI chips called tensor processing units (TPUs) in its data centers starting in 2027, according to a report from The Information.
Meta currently relies on Nvidia chips but may begin renting TPUs from Google Cloud as early as 2026 to test the technology before broader deployment, per the report.
Meanwhile, Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, XETRA:NVD) shares fell 4.5% amid investor worries over rising competition in the artificial intelligence (AI) chip market.
“Nvidia’s dominant position is unlikely to be fundamentally threatened in the short term, but markets are all about forward expectations,” Chris Beauchamp, Chief Market Analyst at IG said.
“(It) certainly seems like Alphabet is poised to snatch market share away from Jensen Huang’s empire.”
11:05am: PPI rises slightly
September’s producer price index (PPI) rose 2.7%, slightly above expectations of 2.6%, while core PPI edged down to 2.6%, missing the anticipated 2.7%.
Despite the modest PPI increase, inflation pressures appear less concerning than the softening labor market.
The data support expectations that the Federal Reserve may move toward a rate cut in December.
10:45am: September retail sales rise
US retail sales edged up 0.2% in September, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday, missing economists’ forecast of a 0.4% gain, after a delay in data release due to the federal government shutdown.
Year-over-year sales grew 4.3%, while core retail sales excluding autos rose 0.3%, in line with expectations.
However, the key control group, closely watched by the Federal Reserve for economic guidance, fell 0.1%, weighed down by declines in autos, electronics, clothing, and sporting goods. Gains in health care and dining out provided some offset, helping cap a broadly solid third quarter.
Wells Fargo economists noted that with the holiday shopping season imminent, the modest September gains and control group dip suggest year-end spending may face headwinds.
"The 0.2% headline increase for the month was underwhelming, and a dip in control group sales puts year-end spending on shaky footing," analysts wrote. "Still, our holiday sales forecast remains intact even if we are now closer to the lower end of our forecast range."
9.55am: Uneven start as Nasdaq drops
It's been an uneven start for Wall Street, with the Dow Jones and Russell 2000 opening higher, but the Nasdaq dropping 0.4% and the S&P 500 wallowing just below flat in early trading.
The blue-chip Dow climbed 0.3% and the domestically focused small-cap Russell 2000 rose 0.4%.
Biggest fallers on the S&P were AMD (down 8.6%), Oracle (down 6.9%), Nvidia (down 6.4%), Super Micro Computer (down 5.5%), Coinbase Global (down 4.8%) and Analog Devices (down 3.9%).
On the Nasdaq, there were also falls for ARM Holdings, Analogue Devices, Marvell Technology, Applovin of 3.5% to 5.5%.
8am: Stocks set for uneven start, Nasdaq lower due to Nvida
US stock futures were in the red but losses were being pared as Tuesday's opening bell neared, ahead of a new round of economic releases as the market catches up on data missed during the federal government lockdown.
Futures for the tech-heavy Nasdaq were down 0.2%, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones futures only just below flat.
This means gains from the start of the week are expected to be mostly held, when a new dynamic around artificial intelligence continued to emerge, while traders were also buoyed by growing hopes of another Federal Reserve interest rate cut at the meeting next month.
The Nasdaq soared 2.7%, the S&P climbed 1.6% and the Dow rose 0.4%, while the Russell 2000 jumped 1.9%.
Some further divergence within the Magnificent 7 tech giants was noted, with Google owner Alphabet making a comeback, rising 6%, while Nvidia was a laggard.
Nvidia is down 3.5% in pre-market trading this morning, having started a decline last night when Meta announced that it would buy chips from Alphabet.
Alphabet, with shares up more than 22% in the past month, has seen a confluence of positive factors, said market analyst Kathleen Brooks at XTB, including Warren Buffet announcing a stake and record-breaking Q3 results.
The Google company has emerged as "the ultimate AI hybrid", said Brooks, "it is both a hyperscaler, creating AI software and products for its customers, and it is now a chip producer for the hyperscalers, who are spending hundreds of billions on their AI infrastructure build outs".
US retail sales, the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index and US producer price index are the data points in the spotlight.
PPI is expected to have notched up a 0.3% increase after falling back 0.1% in August, while US retail sales growth in September is expected to have slowed from 0.6% to 0.4%.
Consumer confidence is predicted to have dropped 1.1 points to 94.6.
These could determine "where stocks go next", said Brooks. If retail sales are little changes it "would still suggest that the US consumer maintained upside momentum as we ended Q3".
"Although this data is old at this stage, it could still rock markets today as the delayed impact from the government shutdown catches up with markets.
"Due to this, if retail sales are stronger than expected, this could weigh on stocks and risky assets as it may reduce expectations for a Fed rate cut next month."