(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended up on Tuesday, optimistic before the publication on Wednesday of the highly anticipated results of Nvidia, the new benchmark on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones gained 0.02%, enough to set a new closing record, while the NASDAQ and S&P 500 each gained 0.16%.
The session started down in an indecisive market, with weak volumes increasing price volatility.
Many speakers are thus absent, during a week marked by the last big event of the summer, the Labor Day weekend (Monday will be a holiday).
But the trend reversed midday after the publication of the Conference Board’s index, which showed a sharp rise in consumer confidence in August, to 103.3 points against 100.7 expected by economists.
In addition, these consumers have revised their inflation expectations downward, to their lowest level since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The economy [américaine] “It’s not perfect, but it’s doing well enough to keep the Dow going up,” said Kim Forrest of Bokeh Capital Partners.
Influenced by the prospect of upcoming rate cuts and a successful issuance of Treasury bonds by the US government, bond rates have eased.
The yield on 2-year US government bonds was 3.90%, compared with 3.93% at the close on Monday.
The New York market is holding its breath before the publication, on Wednesday after the market closes, of the results of the semiconductor champion Nvidia.
“This is going to have a huge impact,” warns Rusty Vanneman, chief investment officer at Orion Advisor Solutions. “Not just for this stock, but for the entire market.”
The big winner of the generative AI (artificial intelligence) revolution, Nvidia is pulverizing analysts’ expectations quarter after quarter thanks to the attractiveness of its graphics cards, chips with increased computing capacities.
Tuesday’s session undermined the story many have been pushing of a rotation underway in New York away from tech giants and toward other industries and smaller stocks.
The major players in microprocessors, Nvidia (+1.46%), Broadcom (+1.11%) and Qualcomm (+2.62%), thus led the charge.
Elsewhere on the list, the specialist in remote computing infrastructures (cloud computing) Super Micro Computer suffered (-2.64%).
Hedge fund Hindenburg Research, known for single-handedly destabilizing Indian conglomerate Adani Group in January 2023, accused Super Micro of accounting manipulation on Tuesday.
Eli Lilly stood out (+0.42%) after the lab launched a half-price version of its anti-obesity treatment Zepbound, which requires the use of a separate syringe.
This rate will only be available online on the Eli Lilly platform. Its competitor Pfizer (-0.35%) launched a similar site on Tuesday that allows it to sell its drugs directly.
These developments penalized Walgreens Boots Alliance (-8.96%), which controls the pharmacy chains Walgreens and Duane Read.
Paramount shares fell (-7.15%) after businessman Edgar Bronfman Jr. backed out of his bid to buy the media group.
In the process, the ad hoc committee appointed by the board of directors confirmed the end of the search for other potential buyers, thus giving its blessing to the proposal submitted by the Skydance Media studio.
Philip Morris International rose 0.96%. The tobacco company announced Tuesday a new investment of $232 million in its Owensboro, Kentucky, facility, which produces nicotine pouches under the Zyn brand.
The group intends to “respond to the growing demand from adult consumers” who are giving up cigarettes or other tobacco products to adopt Zyn.
TSX ends higher
Canada’s main stock index was down on Tuesday, weighed down by losses in the energy sector and falling oil prices.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 89.01 points at 23,259.96.
The Canadian dollar was trading at 74.29 US cents compared to 74.18 US cents on Monday.
On the New York Commodity Exchange, crude oil prices fell by $1.89 to $75.53 per barrel, while natural gas prices fell by four cents to $2.09 per million BTU.
Gold prices fell $2.30 to $2,552.90 an ounce and copper prices rose two cents to $4.30 a pound.
The Canadian Press