U.S. stocks are largely flat as the muted performance across Wall Street inches into the third session of the week, with investors’ focus now firmly on Nvidia earnings, set for release after the close on Wednesday.
Summary
- Stocks opened lower on Wednesday following another muted session on Tuesday.
- Wall Street is cautious ahead of the highly awaited Nvidia earnings report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite all saw a muted early session performance as stocks opened largely unchanged ahead of the highly awaited Nvidia earnings report.
Despite the slight downturn in the past two sessions, the S&P 500 remains 2% up in the past month. The Dow Jones is tracking +2.9%, and the Nasdaq is eyeing a 2% uptick.
Investor sentiment has also flipped from uncertainty amid President Donald Trump’s move to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook.
Stocks unchanged ahead of Nvidia earnings
A bullish reaction to the company’s results, as anticipated, could see the broader tech sector rally.
The benchmark index and tech-heavy Nasdaq stormed to record highs in the second quarter before extending the upside amid a tech stock rally. The Dow also recently climbed to an all-time peak, driven by Fed chair Jerome Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole, before paring gains amid fresh market uncertainty as the interest-rate-hyped uptick faded.
NVDA shares traded higher premarket and are seeing some notable action ahead of the chip giant’s report. This outlook is helping AI-related stocks and cryptocurrencies higher and overall risk-asset markets too.
However, investors are aware of the potential for a hit on Nvidia’s bottom line as forecast in the last quarterly outlook, with Trump’s caps on chip sales to China on the agenda. Experts nonetheless say demand for the AI chips is there.
Stock markets are also constrained following Trump’s “firing” of Cook, a move the Fed governor has challenged and one that saw short-term U.S. Treasury yields slip. The 2-year Treasury yield dropped to lows seen in May on Tuesday and hovered around 3.65%. But long-term bonds jumped, with the 30-year yield rising to 4.95%.
Elsewhere, Bitcoin (BTC) traded around $111,367, having bounced off lows of $109,200.
