Stock Market Today: Dow futures climb as traders await Nvidia earnings

Follow all the latest U.S. market action for Wednesday here.

Gold prices climbed Wednesday, on track to tally a third straight session gain with “safe-haven buying amid worrisome Russia-Ukraine headlines” giving gold a boost despite a rising U.S. dollar Index, said Michael Armbruster, co-founder and managing partner at Altavest.

Another factor is simply that gold just corrected nearly 10% from its all-time high, “so a bounce is no surprise,” he told MarketWatch. He said $3,000 gold is certainly possible by year end, but investors in the metal should focus on the longer term.

On Comex in Wednesday dealings, gold for December delivery climbed $22, or 0.8%, to $2,653 an ounce, poised to mark another settlement at its highest since Nov. 8.

U.S. stocks were mostly lower in midday trading on Wednesday, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was recovering from its session lows and the Dow was wavering between gains and losses.

Bitcoin touched an all-time intraday high well above $94,000 on Wednesday, a day after options began trading on BlackRock’s popular iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF.

The CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index rose to as high as $94,853 and was up for the third straight day, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

“The introduction of options allows investors to trade bitcoin a bit more strategically and less directionally reliant, if they want,” said JJ Kinahan, an executive at Chicago-based retail brokerage and trading platform Tastytrade. “Should the options prove liquid, it could be a significant boost for the tradability of bitcoin.”

Amazon.com’s sharp decline on Wednesday made it the worst-performing stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average during the morning session, according to FactSet data, at last check.

Shares of Amazon were down around 1.6% in late-morning trade, according to FactSet data, at last check. The blue-chip stock gauge Dow was down a modest 0.3% on Wednesday morning.

Big Tech stocks were falling sharply Wednesday, as investors awaited Nivia Corp.’s quarterly earnings results.

The Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF, whose portfolio consists of seven Big tech stocks, was down a sharp 1.2%, according to FactSet data, at last check. Tesla Inc., Google parent Alphabet and Amazon.com Inc. had the biggest drops among stocks in its portfolio, with near or around 2%. The remaining four were also trading in the red, including Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Meta Platforms Inc. and Nvidia.

Williams-Sonoma’s stock is rallying 26.9% on Wednesday after the retailer topped earnings expectations for its third quarter while raising its operating profit margins.

If the gains hold through the end of the session, Williams-Sonoma’s stock will mark its second-largest one-day gain its its trading history, after the stock rose 39.7% on Nov. 24, 2008, according to FactSet data.

Wednesday’ gain now eclipses the stock’s 24.8% rise on March 19, 2020, which is now the third-largest one-day gain in the stock’s trading history.

By contrast, larger retailer Target Inc. fell 20.8% after its earnings and revenue fell short of estimates.

Rising inflation is a “far likelier outcome” of the incoming Trump administration’s policies than any emphasis on boosting government efficiency and cutting costs, said Jim Smigiel, chief investment officer at Pennsylvania-based SEI.

“Inflation concerns have risen in parallel with President-elect Trump’s political fortune,” said Smigiel, whose company manages, advises, or administers about $1.6 trillion in assets. “It’s undeniable that plans for the mass deportation of undocumented immigrant workers and the prospect of tariffs on trading partners are inflationary.”

He added that while the Federal Reserve is likely to cut interest rates again, “the facts suggest that we are nearer to the end of the rate-cutting cycle than to the beginning.”

Oil futures pared some of their gains on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. commercial crude inventories edged up by 500,000 barrels for the week ended Nov. 15.

On average, analysts expected a decline of 800,000 barrels in crude supplies for the week, according to a survey conducted by S&P Global Commodity Insights. Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported a crude inventory rose by 4.75 million barrels, according to a source citing the data.

The EIA report showed a weekly supply gain of 2.1 million barrels for gasoline, while distillate stockpiles inched down by 100,000 barrels. The S&P Global Commodity Insights survey showed expectations for supply decreases of 2.5 million barrels for gasoline and 1.8 million barrels for distillates.

December West Texas Intermediate crude added 7 cents, or 0.1%, to $69.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after trading as high as $70.15. The contract was set to expire at the end of the trading session. January WTI oil, which will become the front month contract, traded at $69.26, up 2 cents.

U.S. stocks were falling on Wednesday morning, weighed down by the 1.2% slump of the Nasdaq Composite.

The S&P 500 was also falling nearly 0.9%, with the consumer discretionary and the information technology sectors each down around 1.4% as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern time, according to FactSet data.

Shares of Tesla and Amazon.com were falling 2.3% and 2%, respectively, while Super Micro Computer Inc.’s stock was off 7.2% and Qualcomm Inc. was dropping 6.2%, according to FactSet data.

Target Inc. CEO Brian Cornell described the challenges facing the retail giant when the company reported its third-quarter results early Wednesday.

“Consumers continue to spend cautiously, most notably on discretionary items,” he said during a conference call to discuss the results. “We’re seeing many of the same themes that have defined the environment for some time,” the CEO added, pointing to “multiple years of price inflation.”