US stocks held broadly steady on Tuesday with AI chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) eyeing a cautious comeback from a three-day skid as investors squared away their portfolios for the quarter’s end.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) moved up roughly 0.7%, while the benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) remained the only major index in the red, slipping about 0.3% after surging over 200 points to start the week.
Stocks are looking brighter after the Nasdaq and S&P 500 took a bruising as Nvidia’s slide dented the tech rally that has powered gains this year. Investors are seen as taking profits scored in AI-linked names as a stellar quarter draws to a close, raising the question of whether recent losses have further to go.
Shares in the AI darling rose over 3% in early trading, coming off a fall of over 6% on Monday.
At the same time, the Dow looks to be finding its feet amid the shift from techs to value stocks, giving weight to the idea of a broadening in gains to other sectors.
Elsewhere, the wait is on for Friday’s update to the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, a favored inflation input for the Federal Reserve. Governor Michelle Bowman on Tuesday stressed she’s willing to hike interest rates if holding them steady fails to bring price pressures under control.
On the economic data front, home prices set a new record high in April although annual growth slowed from the previous month, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller report.
Meanwhile, a reading on consumer confidence highlighted cracks in previous resilience. According to the latest reading from the Conference Board, the index came in at 100 for the month of June, below the 101.3 seen in May. The results were in line with what economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected.
“Confidence pulled back in June but remained within the same narrow range that’s held throughout the past two years, as strength in current labor market views continued to outweigh concerns about the future,” Dana M. Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board, said in the data’s release. “However, if material weaknesses in the labor market appear, Confidence could weaken as the year progresses.”
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