(New York) The New York Stock Exchange concluded modestly in the green on Wednesday, after hesitating at the start of the session and as a brilliant first half for the Wall Street indices soon comes to an end.
The Dow Jones index gained 0.04% to 39,127.80 points, the technology-dominated NASDAQ advanced 0.49% to 17,805.16 points and the S&P 500 rose 0.16% to 5,477. 90 points.
“The S&P 500 is on track to deliver a very positive performance for the first six months of the year, fueled by a surge in the market’s biggest names,” commented Jack Ablin of Cresset.
In the first half, the broader S&P 500 index, the most representative of the market, will have gained nearly 15%.
As for the NASDAQ, driven in particular by the cavalcade of Nvidia, the specialist in chips for artificial intelligence (AI), it has climbed by 18.4% so far since the start of the year.
Nvidia stood still (+0.25%) on Wednesday after having gained almost 7% the day before, its first positive session in four days.
Boosted by investors’ enthusiasm for the adoption of AI in multiple sectors, the title of the processor designer has jumped 150% since the start of the year.
“Thanks to the enthusiasm for AI, Nvidia, while not as expensive as the Cisco server group from the dot-com boom days, remains expensive relative to the rest of the market and could potentially decline thanks to profit-taking” on the part of investors, commented Jack Ablin.
Also driven by the development of AI and the computing cloud, Amazon (+3.90% to $193.61) finished above $2,000 billion in market capitalization for the first time in its history.
Overall, the market remained timid while awaiting new indicators on the American economy.
On Thursday, the final estimate of third-quarter growth is due to be released along with May durable goods orders and jobless claims, a weekly barometer of the health of the labor market.
But above all, it is the PCE inflation index for May, the Fed’s preferred measure for judging price developments, which will attract attention on Friday.
Analysts expect inflation to have slowed year-on-year to 2.6% from 2.7% in April.
On the bond market, ten-year rates accelerated to 4.31% instead of 4.24% the day before.
On the market, the star of the session turned out to be Rivian shares, which concluded with a bang, up 23.24% to $14.74, the highest since February.
The stock has been in demand after Volkswagen on Tuesday announced a giant $5 billion investment to create a joint venture specializing in automotive software with the US electric vehicle maker.
The company “will invest an initial amount of $1 billion in Rivian, before an additional investment of $4 billion, for a total amount of 5 billion euros,” Volkswagen said in a statement.
In the process, Tesla gained 4.81% and Lucid +4.00%.
FedEx shares soared 15.52% after the express carrier reported better-than-expected quarterly and annual results and a structural cost-savings plan that pleased investors.
The household appliance manufacturer Whirlpool took off 16.63%, with press information indicating that the German Bosch is studying a purchase offer for the American company.
Fast-food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill gained 0.29% to $65.85, the stock trading for the first time after its 50-for-50 split, one of the largest stock splits in Wall’s history. Street, intended to make the title, which reached around $2,900, more affordable.
The food giant General Mills fell 4.58% after announcing quarterly sales down year-on-year.
The TSX also on the rise
Canada’s main stock index closed higher on Wednesday, helped by gains in the industrials and base metals sectors, while U.S. stock markets also jumped.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 5.42 points to 21,793.90.
The Canadian dollar was trading at 73.01 US cents, down from 73.21 US cents on Tuesday.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the price of crude oil rose seven cents to US$80.90 per barrel and that of natural gas fell 11 cents to US$2.75 per million BTU.
Gold was down $17.60 to $2,313.20 an ounce and copper was flat at $4.37 a pound.
The Canadian Press