The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the three major U.S. stock indexes with a boost from chips, as Nvidia Corp gained ahead of its earnings report, expected on Wednesday
The Nasdaq closed at a record high on Monday and gold climbed to an all-time peak as investors weighed hawkish statements from the Fed against evidence of cooling U.S. inflation.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the three major U.S. stock indexes with a boost from chips, as Nvidia Corp gained ahead of its earnings report, expected on Wednesday.
The S&P 500 closed the session with a modest gain, while the blue-chip Dow dropped below 40,000 after closing on Friday above that level for the first time.
The Nasdaq is being led higher by Nvidia, but otherwise they are a little bit stalled, according to Jay Hatfield, portfolio manager at InfraCap in New York. The S&P 500 is 11% above its 200-day moving average, which is pretty extended.
We are in a range-bound market and Nvidia will dominate global equity trading this week, he said.
Comments from Fed officials have reflected the U.S. central bank’s cautious view of its progress in reining in inflation and the timing of interest rate cuts.
The market is irrational; it started the year expecting six interest rate cuts, but then the pendulum swung completely to the other side, and everybody was talking about hikes, Hatfield said.
We are probably going to grind higher as long as it is clear the next action is going to be a cut and it is going to happen sometime this year, he added.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 196.82 points, or 0.49%, to 39,806.77, the S&P 500 added 4.86 points, or 0.09%, at 5,308.13 and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 108.91 points, or 0.65%, to 16,794.87.
European stocks eked out modest gains, held in check by interest rate uncertainty.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index advanced 0.18% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe added 0.11%.
Emerging market stocks added 0.16%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ended 0.19% higher, while Japan’s Nikkei added 0.73%.
