Futures up on September rate-cut hopes; Nvidia results in view

Item 1 of 2 Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 3, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

[1/2]Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 3, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

PDD Holdings slumps after quarterly revenue miss
Oil companies up on supply disruption fears, Middle East tensions
Boeing slips as NASA picks SpaceX over Starliner
Indexes: Dow up 0.02%, S&P 500 off 0.41%, Nasdaq down 0.94%

Aug 26 (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq dropped in choppy trading on Monday, weighed by AI-favorite Nvidia ahead of its results later in the week, while markets awaited a key inflation report and cemented bets on an imminent interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

Nvidia

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dropped 2.3%, leading declines among chip stocks and sending the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index

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down 2.5% ahead of the chip designer’s highly anticipated earnings on Wednesday. The broader Technology sector

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also lost over 1%.

Markets have been less forgiving this quarter of highly valued megacap stocks, which spearheaded the excitement around artificial intelligence.

Nvidia’s earnings will be scrutinized to justify the stock’s more than 160% year-to-date jump, which pushed its market cap value to No. 2, just below Apple’s

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, as of Friday’s close.

“Nvidia’s on tap. People are taking a little money off the table, saying, well, we’ve earned some money,” said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners. “Their forecast for the next six months or so is probably the most important data that we get this week.”

Other growth names such as Tesla

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shed 3%, while Meta

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fell 1.4% and Apple

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lost 0.8%.

At 11:47 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average

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was up 10.14 points, or 0.02%, at 41,185.22, the S&P 500

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was down 22.99 points, or 0.41%, at 5,611.62, and the Nasdaq Composite

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was down 168.87 points, or 0.94%, at 17,708.93.

The Energy sector

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bucked the trend to rise 0.6%, as reports of oil supply disruptions amid the geopolitical conflict in the Middle East lifted crude prices.

Other areas in the market, including financials stocks such as American Express

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and consumer staples such as Proctor & Gamble

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, also saw gains, limiting declines on the blue-chip Dow, which hit an intraday record high earlier in the day.

The main indexes rallied more than 1% on Friday, with the benchmark S&P 500

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nearing record highs after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said “the time has come” to lower borrowing costs in the light of a diminishing upside risk to inflation and moderating labor demand.

Traders are now betting on either a 25-basis-point or a 50-basis-point rate cut in September. Odds of the former stand at 67.5%, while odds of a 50-bps cut are at 34.5%, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

Friday’s highly anticipated Personal Consumption Expenditure data for July, the central bank’s preferred inflation gauge, could provide more insight into the policy easing trajectory.

Results from Dell

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, Salesforce

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, Dollar General

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and Gap

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are also expected through the week.

Among others, U.S.-listed shares of PDD Holdings

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sank 29.8% after the Temu-owner missed market expectations for second-quarter revenue.