Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on Feb. 7, 2024.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
The Nasdaq Composite slid for a third session in a row Wednesday as traders looked ahead to Nvidia’s latest quarterly earnings report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 48.44 points, or 0.13%, settling at 38,612.24. The S&P 500 gained 0.13% to end at 4,981.80. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 0.32% to close at 15,580.87.
Nvidia is slated to post its fiscal fourth-quarter results after the bell. Concerns surrounding Nvidia’s high valuation have grown leading up to the announcement, as shares of the chipmaker have soared nearly 230% over the past year. The stock slid 2.85% on Wednesday.
“Can Nvidia hold up a market that is in need of a key catalyst?” LPL Financial’s chief global strategist Quincy Krosby asked, noting that expectations of interest rate cuts have been recently “pulled from underneath the market.” That has left stocks without a clear catalyst, leaving earnings and guidance as the next-best catalyst for continued growth in equities, she said.
“The market is more discerning and increasingly voracious,” Krosby said. “Nvidia could deliver, as they did the last earning season, but it may not be enough for a market that is desperate for even more from the superstars â and Nvidia has been dubbed the superstar of the mega tech world.”
Elsewhere in corporate news, Palo Alto Networks shed 28.4% after the cybersecurity company cut its full-year revenue guidance. SolarEdge Technologies lost about 12.2%, dropping on weak first-quarter guidance.
Minutes released Wednesday from the Federal Reserve’s January meeting â which came on the back of hotter-than-expected economic data the previous week â indicated that central bankers are in no hurry to cut interest rates. Fed officials had decided to leave their key overnight borrowing rate unchanged, and also indicated that no rate cuts would occur until the Federal Open Market Committee has “greater confidence” that inflation is slowing down.
