Stocks were little changed Wednesday morning ahead of the release later today of an eagerly awaited earnings report from AI bellwether Nvidia.
The S&P 500 (SPX) was hovering near unchanged in recent trading, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 0.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) slipped 0.1%. Stocks were coming off a winning session on Tuesday, rebounding from a sluggish start to the week. Each of the major indexes entered today’s session less than 1% away from new record highs.
Market participants will be keeping a close eye on developments at the Federal Reserve following President Donald Trump’s move earlier this week to dismiss Fed Governor Lisa Cook, a member of the committee that sets interest rates and other important policies. The move by Trump, who has excoriated Fed Chair Jerome Powell in recent months for not cutting interest rates, heightened concerns about whether the Fed’s independence could be compromised.
The main event on the calendar today, however, is Nvidia’s (NVDA) quarterly earnings report, which is due to be released after the closing bell. Investors set an extraordinarily high bar for the AI chip giant’s results every quarter, and options trading suggests that the stock is in for a big move following the earnings report. Nvidia shares, which weigh on the S&P 500 more than any other stock, were down nearly 1% in early trading.
Among other mega-cap technology stocks this morning, chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO) declined about 1%, while Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META) and Tesla (TSLA) also lost ground. Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN) ticked higher.
Shares of MongoDB (MDB) soared 33% this morning after the provider of AI-powered software reported better-than-expected earnings and issued a rosy outlook.
PVH Corp. (PVH) shares rose about 2% after the parent of the Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein brands released its quarterly numbers. Kohl’s (KSS) soared 24% after the department store chain reported strong earnings.
Bitcoin was at 111,500 recently, little changed from yesterday afternoon, after falling as low as $108,700 Tuesday morning. Bitcoin has come under pressure since hitting an all-time high above $124,000 just two weeks ago.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the performance of the dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, was up 0.3% at 98.54, a three-week high.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which affects borrowing costs on all sorts of loans, was at 4.28% this morning, up from 4.26% at yesterday’s close.
West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, rose 0.5% to $63.55 per barrel, recovering from a steep downturn on Tuesday. Gold futures slipped 0.2% to $3,425 an ounce.