Stock Market Today: Dow Rising, S&P 500, Nasdaq Set to Open Down; Nvidia Earnings; Salesforce, CrowdStrike, Tesla, More Movers; Israel, Middle East Concern; Treasury Yields

For live coverage and analysis of Nvidia’s results, click here.

The AI darling isn’t the only company set to post earnings Wednesday. Cloud-computing company Salesforce and cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike are also due to report after the closing bell–with the latter’s results covering the period when its software triggered a global tech outage.

Markets will also be keeping an eye on events in the Middle East after Israeli forces launched what they’ve dubbed “an operation to thwart terrorism” in the northern West Bank.

Oil prices were slipping, with Brent crude down 0.2% to $78.48 a barrel and WTI down 0.2% to $75.35 a barrel.

A failure to break the 200-day moving average triggered a selloff on Tuesday, bringing a halt to a three-day, supply-risk driven rally, ANZ Research analysts said.

Nevertheless, geopolitical tensions continue to hang over the market, as Libya’s eastern government declares force majeure on all oil fields, terminals and facilities as part of a spat with the western government, and tensions across the Middle East remain elevated, ANZ said in a note.

The exchange of fire over the weekend between Israel and Hezbollah still threatens to derail ceasefire negotiations, and while both parties say they have finished military operations for now, the market is wary of a wider outbreak and consequent supply risks, they added.

It’s looking like a classic quiet late August day for stocks–although investors will be hopeful Nvidia’s quarterly earnings, due out after Wednesday’s close, might drum up a bit of excitement.

The three main indexes looked set to barely move at the opening bell. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures edged up just 17 points, and contracts tied to the benchmark S&P 500 were trading flat. Futures for the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 gauge were just about in the red, but by less than 0.1%.

The lack of movement comes with investors on tenterhooks ahead of Nvidia’s results. The chip maker is seen as a bellwether for risk assets, and its earnings will also give the market a sense of how artificial intelligence spending is holding up.

The stock has risen 159% so far this year, lifting Nvidia’s valuation to more than $3 trillion. For shares to keep gaining, the company will likely have to signal that there’s strong demand for its next-generation Blackwell chips, so it can sustain strong growth rates.

Nvidia “is again expected to demonstrate that it’s firing on all cylinders, with another round of blockbuster numbers expected,” Hargreaves Lansdown’s head of money and markets Susannah Streeter said in a morning research note. “But a lot will also be riding on the outlook and guidance from the firm, with some uncertainty swirling about just how long it will be before rapacious appetite for its products is sated.”

Nvidia is expected to report a profit of 65 cents a share on revenue of $28.74 billion, according to a poll of analysts’ estimates by the financial data provider FactSet. That would be more than double the revenue it reported for the same quarter in 2023.

The AI darling isn’t the only company set to post earnings on Wednesday. Cloud-computing company Salesforce and cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike are also due to report after the closing bell–with the latter’s results covering the period when its software triggered a global tech outage.

Markets will also be keeping an eye on events in the Middle East after Israeli forces launched what they’ve called “an operation to thwart terrorism” in the northern West Bank. Oil was trading flat despite the latest development, with West Texas Intermediate crude priced at $75.47 a barrel and the Brent benchmark at $78.57 a barrel.

Bond yields were pretty much flat over the past 24 hours. Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes were at 3.828%, and yields on 2-year notes were 3.873%.