NEW YORK (WS News) — Stocks were listless in morning trading on Wall Street Wednesday ahead of an eagerly anticipated earnings report from the semiconductor company Nvidia, whose chips power AI applications.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 35 points, or 0.1%. It is coming off two consecutive all-time highs. The Nasdaq fell 0.5% as of 10:01 a.m. Eastern.
Investors had a mixed batch of earnings and corporate financial updates to review. Nordstrom rose 3.6% after beating analysts’ earnings expectations and raising its financial forecasts for the year. Rival Kohl’s rose 6.6% after also beating analysts’ earnings expectations.
PVH, which owns the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands, fell 7.2% after giving investors a revenue forecast short of analysts’ expectations. Food producer J.M. Smucker fell 4.7% after trimming its earnings forecast for the year.
The latest results from retailers and others come as Wall Street and the Federal Reserve try to gauge the resiliency of U.S. consumers amid the squeeze from inflation and high borrowing rates. The latest updates from clothing retailers, food producers and others can help shed more light on how and where people are spending money.
Most investors and market watchers are fixated on the upcoming Nvidia earnings report, expected after the market closes on Wednesday. It is one of the most influential stocks on Wall Street, with a total market value topping $3 trillion.
Nvidia is one of several companies that have ridden a wave of enthusiasm over artificial intelligence developments and have been responsible for much of the broader market’s big gains over the last year.
Nvidia slipped 1.2%, though it is up 156% for the year.
Investors are also looking ahead to Friday, when the U.S. government releases its latest data on inflation with the PCE, or personal consumption and expenditures report, for July. The hope is that the data shows inflation easing further — or at least stagnating — so that Fed officials remain comfortable cutting interest rates at their September meeting as they’ve strongly suggested they would.
Bond yields were mixed in the Treasury market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.84% from 3.83% on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, markets were mostly lower in Europe and mixed in Asia.
