(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended down on Tuesday weighed down by technology and especially by the darling of the market, Nvidia, with investors playing it safe before the results of the designer of processors for artificial intelligence.
The Dow Jones index lost 0.17% to 38,563.80 points, the technology-dominated NASDAQ lost 0.92% to 15,630.78 points and the broader S&P 500 index fell 0.60%. at 4975.51 points.
“Nvidia weighed on the rest of the market,” admitted Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers while the title lost 4.35% to $694.52 on the eve of the announcement of its quarterly results on Wednesday.
“It is true that the stock, which has climbed more than 40% since the start of the year, has not had many episodes of decline,” quipped the analyst.
Nvidia even recently dethroned Tesla in terms of value of shares traded daily as euphoria around developments in artificial intelligence boosted the stock and those of other chipmakers.
But on Tuesday, in the wake of Nvidia’s fall, the shares of Super Micro Computer (SMCI) and Arm dropped 1.96% and 5.12% respectively.
Investors also digested the announcement of the biggest buyout of the year so far, that of the credit card company Discover by the banking group Capital One, for the sum of $35.3 billion in shares.
Capital One gained 0.15% to $137.44 and Discover soared 12.63% to $124.44, “Capital One offered a premium of almost 27% on Discover’s share price at closing on Friday,” noted Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management. Discover ended Friday at $110.49.
Once the transaction is completed, if the anti-trust authorities see no obstacle, Capital One shareholders will own approximately 60% and Discover shareholders approximately 40% of the company resulting from the merger.
The new group would then become the fourth global credit card network behind Visa (-1.18%), Mastercard (-3.47%) and American Express (-0.04%).
Several company results have left their mark. Those of Walmart (+3.26%) first largely exceeded expectations with a dynamic fourth quarter and the increase in its dividend.
Sales climbed 5.7% to $173.4 billion, above Wall Street analysts’ expectations. For fiscal 2025, Walmart expects sales to increase by 3 to 4%.
But above all, the leader in discount hypermarkets announced the acquisition of the American manufacturer of connected televisions Vizio for $2.3 billion. With this acquisition, Walmart wants to offer its customers connected television and entertainment services, while generating new sources of advertising revenue.
The DIY chain Home Depot remained stable (+0.07%) after a quarterly profit that was down but better than expected. Sales fell 3.5%, with group CEO Ted Decker calling 2023 a “year of moderation” after the two-year COVID-19 outbreak had been favorable to DIY spending.
The securities listed in New York of the British bank Barclays rose to their highest of the year (+8.59% to 161.80 dollars) with the market favorably judging the conjunction of a restructuring of the bank with the increase in its distributions to shareholders through an increase in the dividend and share buybacks.
On the bond market, yields remained calm at 4.27% as the day before for ten-year bonds.
The TSX down slightly
Canada’s main stock index closed slightly lower on Tuesday and U.S. markets also fell as investors continued to speculate on when central banks on both sides of the border will begin cutting interest rates.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 38.08 points to 21,217.53.
In Canada, where markets were coming off a holiday on Monday, the big news was the latest report on the Consumer Price Index from Statistics Canada.
Data showed the country’s annual inflation rate fell to 2.9% last month, a sharper-than-expected deceleration in price growth
Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press