Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on Feb. 23, 2024.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Stocks were flat on Tuesday as investors looked ahead to a major earnings report later this week.
The S&P 500 was little changed, while the Nasdaq Composite crept 0.1% higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 80 points, 0.2%.
On Monday, the Dow broke with the broader market and reached intraday and closing record highs. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq struggled as tech shares dipped.
Investors are eager to see earnings from top artificial intelligence beneficiary Nvidia after Wednesday’s closing bell. Shares of the graphics processing unit manufacturer fell nearly 1% on Tuesday. Nvidia has become a key bellwether for tech stocks and AI more broadly, and investors will look toward its second-quarter results to gauge the health of the AI trade.
“There’s very little economic data of importance until after Nvidia, so you really are in kind of a wait-and-see [situation],” said Baird analyst Ross Mayfield. “The trend in the market right now is a rotation away from tech and so Nvidia could change all of that tomorrow, but until then, I think the the predominant trend in the market is going to be to stay put, and you kind of have this light volume, listless market as you wait.”
Stocks are also trying to find stable footing after a brutal start to the month. Investors have grown more optimistic, however, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled on Friday that the central bank’s next move will be to cut benchmark interest rates. Powell did not specify when, or by how much, interest rates would be reduced.
Traders are unanimously forecasting a rate cut at the central bank’s Sept. 17-18 policy meeting of at least 25 basis points, according to data from the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.
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